point as above described. I AM NOT SORRY THAT I DID NOT
KNOW AT THE TIME WHO IT WAS." *

*Doubt that the officer in question was Washington was expressed
by James Fenimore Cooper. Cooper stated that Major De Lancey, his
father-in-law, was binding Ferguson's arm at the time when the two
officers were seen and Ferguson recalled the order to fire, and that De
Lancey said he believed the officer was Count Pulaski. But, as Ferguson,
according to his own account, "leveled his piece" at the officer, his
arm evidently was not wounded until later in the day. The probability is
that Ferguson's version, written in a private letter to his relative, is
correct as to the facts, whatever may be conjectured as to the identity
of the officer. See Draper's King's "Mountain and its Heroes," pp.
52-54.

Ferguson had his code towards the foe's women also. On one occasion when
he was assisting in an action carried out by Hessians and Dragoons, he
learned that some American women had been shamefully maltreated. He went
in a white fury to the colonel in command, and demanded that the men who
had so disgraced their uniforms instantly be put to death.

In rallying the loyalists of the Back Country of Georgia and the
Carolinas, Ferguson was very successful. He was presently in command of
a thousand or more men, including small detachments of loyalists from
New York and New Jersey, under American-born officers such as De Peyster
and Allaire. There were good honest men among the loyalists and there
were also rough and vicious men out for spoils--which was true as well
of the Whigs or Patriots from the same counties. Among the rough element
were Tory banditti from the overmountain region. It is to be gathered
from Ferguson's records that he did not think any too highly of some
of his new recruits, but he set to work with all energy to make them
useful.

The American Patriots hastily prepared to oppose him. Colonel Charles
McDowell of Burke County, North Carolina, with a small force of militia
was just south of the line at a point on the Broad River when he heard
that Ferguson was sweeping on northward. In haste he sent a call for
help across the mountains to Sevier and Shelby. Sevier had his hands
full at Watauga, but he dispatched two hundred of his troops; and Isaac
Shelby, with a similar force from Sullivan County crossed the mountains
to McDowell's assistance. These "overmountain men" or "backwater men,"
as they were called east of