s part of the Country, we think such a body of men
worthy of your attention and would request you to send a General Officer
immediately to take the command.... All our Troops being Militia and but
little acquainted with discipline, we could wish him to be a Gentleman
of address, and able to keep up a proper discipline WITHOUT DISGUSTING
THE SOLDIERY."

For some unknown reason--unless it might be the wording of this
letter!--no officer was sent in reply. Shelby then suggested that, since
all the officers but Campbell were North Carolinians and, therefore,
no one of them could be promoted without arousing the jealousy of the
others, Campbell, as the only Virginian, was the appropriate choice.
The sweet reasonableness of selecting a commander from such a motive
appealed to all, and Campbell became a general in fact if not in name!
Shelby's principal aim, however, had been to get rid of McDowell,
who, as their senior, would naturally expect to command and whom he
considered "too far advanced in life and too inactive" for such an
enterprise. At this time McDowell must have been nearly thirty-nine; and
Shelby, who was just thirty, wisely refused to risk the campaign under a
general who was in his dotage!

News of the frontiersmen's approach, with their augmented force, now
numbering between sixteen and eighteen hundred, had reached Ferguson by
the two Tories who had deserted from Sevier's troops. Ferguson thereupon
had made all haste out of Gilbert Town and was marching southward to get
in touch with Cornwallis. His force was much reduced, as some of his
men were in pursuit of Elijah Clarke towards Augusta and a number of his
other Tories were on furlough. As he passed through the Back Country
he posted a notice calling on the loyalists to join him. If the
overmountain men felt that they were out on a wolf hunt, Ferguson's
proclamation shows what the wolf thought of his hunters.

"To the Inhabitants of North Carolina.

"Gentlemen: Unless you wish to be eat up by an innundation of
barbarians, who have begun by murdering an unarmed son before the aged
father, and afterwards lopped off his arms, and who by their shocking
cruelties and irregularities give the best proof of their cowardice
and want of discipline: I say if you wish to be pinioned, robbed and
murdered, and see your wives and daughters in four days, abused by the
dregs of mankind--in short if you wish to deserve to live and bear the
name of men, grasp your arms i