move with greater
forces in their foraging expeditions. It is seldom, in the historic
annals of any people, that we find it required "one half" of a large
army, in a sparsely settled country, to "protect the foraging parties
and cattle drivers." It indicated a spirit of determined resistance by
the patriots of Mecklenburg and of the State generally, which can only
be construed as a faithful maintenance of the principles of freedom
proclaimed on the 20th of May, 1775.

After the victory of the Whigs at King's Mountain, and the loss of
Ferguson, one of his bravest officers, and his entire command,
Cornwallis concluded to leave the rebellious post he then occupied.

William McCafferty, a resident Scotchman, and a man of considerable
wealth, was employed as the guide to lead the British army by the
nearest road to Winnsboro, S.C. Tradition says, that after so
bewildering the army in the swamps that much of their baggage was
lost, he contrived to escape, and left them to find their way out, as
best they could, by the returning light of day. As the British army
progressed, passing through the Steele Creek neighborhood, they
encamped about three days on Spratt's plantation, waiting to cross the
swollen Catawba, and for the collection of additional supplies. A
guard was placed around the encampment, and one of the number assigned
to a position between the Charlotte road and a neighboring cane-brake.
On the second or third day the sharp crack of a rifle was heard up the
Charlotte road, and a small detachment of the British army was
immediately dispatched to investigate its meaning. When the detachment
arrived at the position of the sentinel, he was found dead, at the
foot of a black oak, against which it is supposed he was leaning at
the time. Captain William Alexander (better known as "Black Bill,")
one of the "terrible Mecklenburg Whigs," fired the fatal shot from the
adjoining cane-brake. Many others of the Sugar Creek rebels were with
Captain Alexander on this occasion, but he alone ventured within
killing distance. Long before Tarleton and his dragoons could reach
the scene of action, Alexander and his party were entering the brushy
woods of Steele Creek, on their way back to the Whig settlements of
Upper Sugar Creek. The associates of Alexander were the Taylors,
Barnetts, Walkers, Polks, and other kindred spirits, who shot many of
the sentries around the British encampment at Charlotte, and seriously
annoyed or cut off t