Neither side could claim the
mastery. In a minor engagement fought at Musgrove's Mill on the
Enoree, Shelby's command came off victor and was about to pursue
the enemy towards Ninety-Six when a messenger from McDowell
galloped madly into camp with word of General Gates's crushing
defeat at Camden. This was a warning for Shelby's guerrillas to
flee as birds to their mountains, or Ferguson would cut them off
from the north and wedge them in between his own force and the
victorious Cornwallis. McDowell's men, also on the run for
safety, joined them. For forty-eight hours without food or rest
they rode a race with Ferguson, who kept hard on their trail
until they disappeared into the mystery of the winding mountain
paths they alone knew.
Ferguson reached the gap where they had swerved into the towering
hills only half an hour after their horses' hoofs had pounded
across it. Here he turned back. His troops were exhausted from
the all-night ride and, in any case, there were not enough of
them to enable him to cross the mountains and give the Watauga
men battle on their own ground with a fair promise of victory. So
keeping east of the hills but still close to them, Ferguson
turned into Burke County, North Carolina. He sat him down in
Gilbert Town (present Lincolnton, Lincoln County) at the foot of
the Blue Ridge and indited a letter to the "Back Water Men,"
telling them that if they did not lay down their arms and return
to their rightful allegiance, he would come over their hills and
raze their settlements and hang their leaders.
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