In the diary of Lieutenant Allaire, one of
his officers, the number is given as only eight hundred. Because
of the state of his army, chroniclers have found Ferguson's
movements, after leaving Gilbert Town, difficult to explain. It
has been pointed out that he could easily have escaped, for he
had plenty of time, and Charlotte, Cornwallis's headquarters, was
only sixty miles distant. We have seen something of Ferguson's
quality, however, and we may simply take it that he did not want
to escape. He had been planning to cross the high hills--to him,
the Highlander, no barrier but a challenge--to fight these men.
Now that they had taken the initiative he would not show them his
back. He craved the battle. So he sent out runners to the main
army and rode on along the eastern base of the mountains, seeking
a favorable site to go into camp and wait for Cornwallis's aid.
On the 6th of October he reached the southern end of the King's
Mountain ridge, in South Carolina, about half a mile south of the
northern boundary. Here a rocky, semi-isolated spur juts out from
the ridge, its summit--a table-land about six hundred yards long
and one hundred and twenty wide at its northern end--rising not
more than sixty feet above the surrounding country. On the summit
Ferguson pitched his camp.
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