were stationed upon the north side.
Ferguson's forces consisted of Provincial Rangers, one hundred
and fifty strong, and other well-drilled Loyalists, between eight
and nine hundred in number; but his strength was seriously
weakened by the absence of a foraging party of between one and
two hundred who had gone off on the morning the battle occurred.
Shelby's men, before getting into position, received a hot fire,
the opening shots of the engagement. This inspired Campbell, who
now threw off his coat, to shout encouraging orders to his men
posted on the side of the mountain opposite to Shelby's force.
When Campbell's Virginians uttered a series of piercing shouts,
the British officer, De Peyster, second in command, remarked to
his chief: "These things are ominous--these are the damned
yelling boys."

The battle, which lasted some minutes short of an hour, was waged
with terrific ferocity. The Loyalist militia, whenever possible,
fired from the shelter of the rocks; while the Provincial Corps,
with fixed bayonets, steadily charged the frontiersmen, who fired
at close range and then rapidly withdrew to the very base of the
mountain. After each bayonet charge the Provincials coolly
withdrew to the summit, under the accumulating fire of the
returning mountaineers, who quickly gathered in their rear. Owing
to their elevated location, the British, although using the
rapid-fire breech-loading rifle invented by Ferguson himself,
found their vision deflected, and continually fired high, thus
suffering from nature's handicap, refraction. The militia, using
sharpened butcher-knives which Ferguson had taught them to
utilize as bayonets, charged against the mountaineers; but their
fire, in answer to the deadly fusillade of the expert squirrel-shooters,
was belated, owing to the fact that they could not fire
while the crudely improvised bayonets remained inserted in their
pieces. The Americans, continually firing upward, found ready
marks for their aim in the clearly delineated outlines of their
adversaries, and felt the fierce exultation which animates the
hunter who has tracked to its lair and surrounded wild game at
bay.

The leaders of the various divisions of the mountaineers bore
themselves with impetuous bravery, recklessly rushing between the
lines of fire and with native eloquence, interspersed with
profanity, rallying their individual commands again and again to
the attack. The valiant Campbell scaled the rugged height