Kings Pinnacle (42 page)

The Loyalists and British
regulars saw the battlements as soon as they came over the ridge.
Most of them fired their rifles too soon, causing little damage.
Colonel Shelby’s men were more disciplined and held their fire
until the enemy came well within range. Then they used their rifles
to a devastating effect on the British and the British
sympathizers. The attackers soon realized that they had superior
numbers, so the British regulars formed up for a bayonet charge
against Colonel Shelby’s right flank.

“Captain Mackenzie, I need
you to reinforce my right flank. It looks like the enemy’s bayonet
charge may break through our lines there,” said Colonel
Shelby.

“
We will take care of it,”
replied Alex.

“Men, I want you to remember
your training, and especially your marksmanship training, as we
attack,” said Alex to his men.

Alex’s men maneuvered around
to the right flank and then attacked the British regulars, yelling
Cherokee war cries that they had learned at the siege of Fort
Watauga several months earlier. Several of the British regular
enemy officers were killed outright and the bayonet charge was
stopped. The British regulars and the Loyalists began to flee the
battlefield.

All the patriots behind the
battlements saw the devastating effect of the war cries, so they
came out of their defensive positions, shrieking war cries of their
own. Soon they had all the Loyalists and British regulars on the
run. The rest of the battle took only a few minutes, and the
patriots killed or captured most of the enemy.

With their job done for the
present, the Overmountain Men, as Hugh had named them, headed back
over the mountains.

* * * *

Major Ferguson

“
General Cornwallis,
welcome to my camp here at Gilbert Town. To what do I owe the
pleasure of your visit?” asked Major Ferguson as the newly arrived
General Cornwallis walked into his tent with one of his
sentries.

“Major Ferguson, I am on an
inspection tour of the southern theater of the campaign against the
rebels. General Clinton has given me command of the entire southern
theater, and you now report directly to me,” replied His Excellency
The Most Honorable General Lord Charles Cornwallis, The Earl
Cornwallis.

“
Congratulations on your
promotion,” replied the major.

“What, may I ask, are you
doing this far east of Fort Ninety-Six with your army in tow?”
asked the general.

“Some of the rebels killed a
number of my men last week at Musgrove Mill, which is in this
vicinity, and took control of a ford near there. I am out here
chasing them down to punish them.”

“
I see and I wish you luck
in your hunting,” replied the general.

“May I show you around the
camp while you are here visiting us?” asked the major.

“That will not be necessary.
I see that you are currently conducting your staff meeting. My time
is short here. I must retire to Charlotte immediately. I will stay
only until the end of your meeting. Please continue what you were
doing before my interruption.”

“Very well, sir. The captain
here was just reporting the results of his patrol looking for the
rebels. Please continue, Captain DePeyster.”

“Major Ferguson, we have
captured a number of the rebels from beyond the Appalachian
Mountains who took part in the earlier raid at Camden and the
recent raid at Musgrove Mill. Most of the rebels have retreated to
their valleys and settlements over the mountains, but we captured a
few of them before they could get away. I thought you might be
interested in interrogating them,” said Captain
DePeyster.

“
Bring me one of the more
prominent captives,” said the major.

The captain left and soon
returned with a grizzled frontiersman named Samuel Phillips to
stand in front of the major. The captain whispered something to
Major Ferguson and then sat beside him for the
interrogation.

“I understand from Captain
DePeyster that you are related to Colonel Isaac Shelby who resides
at a fort of his own making on the frontier,” said Major Ferguson
to the captive.

“That I am, Your Highness.
He is my cousin.”

Major Ferguson ignored the
royal title, but his irritation at the smug frontiersman’s sass
showed in his demeanor.

“I am going to pardon you so
that you can take a message back over the mountains to your cousin
Colonel Shelby and all the rest of the rebels who operate out of
the settlements there.”

“I will be happy to deliver
your message, Lieutenant,” replied Samuel Phillips just to tweak
the major again by reducing his rank.

“I am a British Army major,
not a lieutenant, you ignorant frontier person,” grunted the
clearly angry Major Ferguson.

After the major gained control of
himself, he continued his instructions.

“However, my message is that
if the so called Overmountain Men don’t lay down their arms, I will
march my army over the mountains, hang their leaders, and lay waste
their country with fire and sword. Please deliver that message as a
condition of your pardon.”

“I will be happy to deliver
your message, Your Honor,” replied the grinning Samuel Phillips,
trying to further tweak the major.

“
Who may I say the message
is from?”

“You may say that Major
Ferguson sends the message and that they should heed it if they
value their lives.”

“That will be all,”
continued the major, dismissing the prisoner and his staff
officers.

When the tent was empty,
Major Ferguson turned back to speak with General
Cornwallis.

“General is there anything
at all that I can do for you?”

“As you know, I am not in
favor of using the Loyalists to fight for us. I think that they are
unreliable and hardheaded, ignore orders, and are not capable of
being trained,” said General Cornwallis.

“I am aware of your views,
Sir, but I have begun using a silver infantry whistle to allow me
more control over a larger number of men, and they seem to be
taking to it very well.”

“I wish you luck, Major
Ferguson, but I doubt that the results will be what you expect. I
must take my leave now. Goodbye.”

“Thank you sir, and travel
safely,” replied Major Ferguson as the general exited his
tent.

* * * *

Alex

“
The reason that I called
you men all here to the fort is that Colonel Shelby has ridden in
from Shelby’s Fort with a message for us. On the way, he stopped at
Fort Patrick Henry to collect Colonel Russell and other officers
from that area. Colonel Shelby, the floor is yours,” said Colonel
Tipton in his office at Fort Watauga.

“I would rather have my
cousin Samuel Phillips tell you the news,” replied Colonel Shelby,
pointing to his cousin who stood up and removed his fur cap to
address the group.

“I was raiding with McDowell
southeast of here over the mountains after we beat the British at
Camden. We got into a tight spot west of Gilbert Town and were
outnumbered by Major Ferguson’s forces. I was captured and taken to
his camp at Gilbert Town. They roughed me up a little, but soon I
was brought before the major himself. He pardoned me and sent me as
a messenger to tell you gentlemen that if we don’t lay down our
muskets, he is going to march over the mountains with his army and
hang all of us and burn our crops and everything else down,”
concluded Sam Phillips, who abruptly sat back down and put his fur
cap back on his head.

“Before we decide, I wanted
to ask you gentlemen what you think,” said Colonel Tipton, glancing
at Alex.

Alex saw the glance and knew
that Colonel Tipton wanted him to speak up, so he stood up. All the
men in the room turned their heads to look at him.

“My thought is that we not
stay in our cabins here and wait for this major and his army to
show up on our doorstep to attack us like the Cherokee did. We need
to take the battle to him. I propose that we raise an army from all
of the settlements west of the Appalachians. Then we should travel
over the mountains to find this major and his army and attack them
before they attack us,” said Alex and sat back down.

“Here! Here!” shouted the
men in the room as they all stood up and cheered.

“That settles it if no one
else has anything to say,” said Colonel Tipton.

“We will muster here at the
Sycamore Shoals two weeks from today with all the men we can find.
Someone needs to take a wagon over to the lead mine at Bumpass Cove
and pick up all the shot that is available. I also need men to head
over to the Pattons’ powder mill to collect all the gunpowder they
have on hand. The women need to start cooking trail rations for the
trip. Colonel John Sevier will be leading the main body of men from
Fort Watauga.”

“Captain Mackenzie, I want
you and your men to leave several days ahead of the main body to
scout out the route we will take and to locate this Major Ferguson
and his army. He may have moved out of Gilbert Town by now. Now
everyone has a lot to do, so let’s get going,” concluded Colonel
Tipton.

The group broke up as men
left to take care of the many things that they needed to do to get
ready for the trip.

Alex gathered his brothers,
the Longhunter, and Jonas to help him get his men ready for the
mission. They were ready to leave a few days before the main body
mustered at Sycamore Shoals.

“Martha, I am going to have
to go now,” said Alex as he held her in his arms on the morning of
the day when he was leaving.

“
When will you be back?”
asked the teary-eyed Martha.

“
It could be a
while.”

“
Then I’ll go with
you.”

“You can’t go, Martha. There
will be a lot of bloodshed.”

“
You know I can fight as
well as any man.”

“I know that, but someone
has to stay here in case this Major Ferguson gets past us and comes
over the mountains.”

“Well, alright. I’ll be here
waiting for you when you do come home,” said Martha, and she kissed
Alex goodbye.

Alex and his men marched
southeast toward the Blue Ridge Mountains. They marched all day and
made their first camp at the base of Roan Mountain, at Shelving
Rock. Jonas and the Longhunter marked the trail using trail signs
and staked out the area where the main body should camp the first
night on the trail.

The next day they climbed
over the Blue Ridge Mountains at Yellow Mountain Gap on their way
to hunt down Major Ferguson and his army.

* * * *

Major Ferguson

“
I’m getting tired of that
damn silver whistle,” grumbled one of the Loyalist
troops.

“Me, too, I like to shove it
up…,” said his mate, but the rest of his words were interrupted by
a shouted command from Major Ferguson.

“One long whistle means
stop, one short whistle is a signal for you to march to the right,”
yelled Major Ferguson. “This is not hard; just pay attention and
remember what you are supposed to do.”

Major Ferguson cut a dashing
figure, riding around on his white charger. He wore his red British
uniform under the checkered duster he had switched to after his
green-clad Ferguson rifle infantry unit had been disbanded. The
training of his Loyalists men was interrupted by Captain DePeyster,
his second in command, riding up to speak with him.

“Sir, we have a report from
our scouts that there is a large body of rebels headed toward our
location.”

“How many of them are
there?”

“The report indicates that
it could be more than one thousand men.”

“That is a significant
number and nearly the size of my own force here. Let’s call it
quits for the day. I think it might be wise if we move a little
closer to Charlotte so that General Cornwallis can reinforce us if
we need it,” said Major Ferguson.

He then suspended training
for the rest of the day and retired to his tent to prepare a report
to send to General Cornwallis. Part of the report read:

“the backwater men have
crossed over the mountains, and I am in desperate need of
reinforcements”

“Captain DePeyster, please
assign one of the men to carry this message to General Cornwallis
in Charlotte and await a reply from him. We will be breaking camp
tomorrow morning at first light in order to move our troops to
Charlotte to join General Cornwallis,” commanded Major
Ferguson.

“Yes, Sir,” replied the
captain, who took the dispatch and went looking for a
courier.

Major Ferguson walked back
to his tent and a buxom young redhead named Virginia Sal who had
been accompanying him on his patrol of the frontier.

“What seems to be the
problem?” asked Virginia Sal as the major walked into their tent
and she saw the troubled look on his face.