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.
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