Sarah Dillard's Ride: A Story of the Carolinas in 1780

"I'm sorry I didn't wait a few minutes longer!" the lad cried, in a tone of deepest regret. "Of course we were bound to stop him; but it might have been done without killing!"

Evan shared his comrade's regrets, believing Ephraim had been seriously if not dangerously wounded, and the two ran forward with all speed, fully expecting to find their enemy disabled or dead.

Therefore was their surprise all the greater when the swaying of the branches told that the Tory was yet able to keep his feet, and once more Nathan shouted, this time in a tone of anger:

"Halt, or I shall fire again! Give me your musket, Evan, and do you load this one! Work quickly, for I'm not minded to linger over the task of stopping him!"

The exchange of weapons was made without delay, and once more Nathan fired. Again came a scream as of pain from the fugitive; but this time the pursuers were not troubled in mind lest they had needlessly inflicted pain.

Nathan leaped forward as he discharged the musket, and an instant later stood face to face with Ephraim Sowers, who, with a rotten branch upraised as a club, stood at bay where a perfect network of trees, that had most likely been overturned by the wind, barred his further passage.

"I'll beat your brains out!" Ephraim screamed viciously, brandishing his poor apology for a weapon. "Don't make the mistake of thinkin' I'll be carried back among them rebels!"

"You had better give in peaceably, for we shan't spend much time in arguing the matter," Nathan said decidedly; but yet he did not advance for the very good reason that he was virtually unarmed, having dropped his musket at the moment of emptying it, in order that he might not be impeded in his movements.

Because he remained motionless, Ephraim believed the lad was afraid, and pressed his supposed advantage by crying, in a tone that was very like the snarl of a cat:

"Keep your distance or I'll kill you! This club will stand me as good a turn as the empty muskets do you, an' I count on using it!"

By this time Evan came into view carrying both weapons, and, seeing that the game was brought to bay without opportunity of continuing the flight, said quietly:

"Keep your eye on him, Nathan, and I'll soon put in a charge that will bring him to terms."

He had begun to load the musket as he spoke, doing so with deliberation as if there was no good reason why he should make haste; and such leisurely movements had even more effect upon the Tory than did the show of ammunition.

"I didn't count you had more than a single charge," he said, with a whine.

"It seemed odd to me that you should suddenly have plucked up so much courage," Nathan replied scornfully. "Even though our ammunition had been exhausted, you could not have held us back with that rotten club. Load carefully, Evan, for I don't want to make any mistake as to aim!"

"Are you countin' on killin' me?" Ephraim cried, in an agony of terror, flinging down his poor weapon and holding out both hands in supplication. "Would you murder a fellow who never did you any harm?"

"You are the veriest coward in the Carolinas;" and Nathan spoke in a tone of such contempt that even the thick-skinned Tory winced.

"Come out here, and we'll make certain of taking you back to Broad River!"

The Tory meekly obeyed, making no show of protest lest he might bring down the anger of his captors upon himself; and Evan said, as he finished loading both weapons:

"Do you walk ahead, Nathan, and let him follow. I'll come close at his heels, and we'll spend no more time over this job than may be necessary. Abbott should be near at hand by the time we get back to the trail."

Ephraim obeyed in silence and, because he neither begged nor whined, the boys feared lest he had some plan of escape in his mind.

"Do not take your eyes from him for a single instant," Nathan cried warningly as he led the way in the manner suggested by Evan, "and shoot at the first suspicious move he makes. We have done this work in short order, and now it will be because of our own carelessness if the troop sets off without us."

"Don't think that I'm going to be so foolish as to make another try at gettin' away," Ephraim said sulkily. "There's no show for me in this section of the country while the king's troops are so far away, an' I ain't countin' on takin' the chances of bein' shot."

"We shan't be so foolish as to take your word for it," Evan replied. "I'll admit that you won't make much of a fist toward escaping; but time is precious with us just now, and we can't afford to waste any in chasing you."

From that moment until they were come to the trail where the horses had been left, no word was spoken; and then the lads were greeted by a cry of joy and triumph from Abbott, who had just come into view.

"I knew you'd overhaul him!" the trooper said exultantly; "and if he gives me the slip again there'll be good reason for my bein' hanged!"

"Do you think it will be safe for us to leave him here with you?" Nathan asked, as if undecided what course he ought to pursue.

"I'll answer for him with my life! Don't think there is any chance of slipping up on the work again, after all that's been in my mind since he got away."

After a brief consultation the two lads concluded it would be safe to leave the prisoner with Abbott, particularly since Colonel McDowells had so instructed them; and in less than two hours from the time of leaving the encampment, they were riding back at full speed, hoping it might be possible to arrive before the force had started on the march toward King's Mountain.

And in this they were successful.

The soldiers were on the point of setting out when the lads arrived, and the reception with which they were met can well be imagined.

As soon as their story could be told, and it was generally understood there was no longer any reason to fear that Ephraim Sowers might carry information of their movements to Major Ferguson, the command was in motion, with Nathan and Evan riding either side of Colonel McDowells.

In the report of the battle, which is signed by Colonel Benjamin Cleaveland, Colonel Isaac Shelby, and Colonel William Campbell, is the following account:

"We began our march with nine hundred of the best men about eight o'clock the same evening, and, marching all night, came up with the enemy about three o'clock P.M. of the seventh, who lay encamped on the top of King's Mountain, twelve miles north of the Cherokee Ford, in the confidence that they could not be forced from so advantageous a post. Previous to the attack, on our march, the following disposition was made: Colonel Shelby's regiment formed a column in the center, on the left; Colonel Campbell's regiment another on the right, with part of Colonel Cleaveland's regiment, headed in front by Major Joseph Winston; and Colonel Sevier's formed a large column on the right wing. The other part of Colonel Cleaveland's regiment, headed by Colonel Cleaveland himself, and Colonel Williams' regiment, composed the left wing. In this order we advanced, and got within a quarter of a mile of the enemy before we were discovered."

Evan and Nathan rode by the side of the latter's uncle, and as Colonel Shelby's and Colonel Cleaveland's regiments began the attack, they were the first in action.

"I am growing timorous," Evan whispered to Nathan as the troops began the ascent of the hill, and the latter replied:

"A fellow who spends twenty-four hours in walking, and twenty-four hours in riding, without repose, can well be forgiven for losing some portion of his courage. My own knees are not oversteady, and I am beginning to wonder whether they will bear me out when we are within range of British lead."

Five minutes later Major Ferguson's force opened fire, and Colonel Isaac Shelby had no cause to complain of the lads' behavior.

As Evan afterward admitted, he was hardly conscious of what he did from the moment he saw the first man fall.

One of the troopers reported to Colonel McDowells, who asked concerning his son after the engagement was at an end:

"The two boys fought side by side, and like veteran soldiers. I saw them making their way up the hill when the shot was flying around them like hail, and it was as if neither realized the peril, or, realizing it, as if he heeded not the possibility that death might come at any instant. Never faltering, they continued the ascent, pressing close on Isaac Shelby's heels until they were the foremost, fighting hand to hand with the Britishers.

"They were within a dozen feet of Colonel Williams when he received his death wound, and then the redcoats were pressing us so hotly that no man dared step aside to aid the officer. Yet these two went out of their course to give him succor, and, finding that he was already unconscious, pressed forward once more. I was just behind them when we arrived at the spot where Major Ferguson lay dead."

"Evan feared his courage might fail him when in the heat of action," the colonel said half to himself, and the trooper replied with emphasis:

"It must have increased rather than failed, colonel, for those two lads shamed many a man of us during the hour and five minutes which we spent grappling with the Britishers. Twice were we forced to fall back; but they remained in the front line, and each time when we rallied they were first to take the forward step. Not until Colonel Depuyster hoisted the white flag did I see them cease their efforts, and then, the excitement being gone, it was as if both of them collapsed, and little wonder, colonel, for if you will stop to think, these lads spent forty-eight hours riding and walking before going into as hot an engagement as we in the Carolinas have ever experienced."

The battle of King's Mountain came to an end as the trooper had said, in one hour and five minutes after it began, and when the American forces were drawn up in line it was found that of the nine hundred, only twenty were killed; but more than five times that number had been wounded.

Of the king's soldiers, four officers and fifteen privates were killed, and thirty-five privates seriously wounded. Eighteen officers and fifteen privates were taken prisoners. Of the Tories, five officers and two hundred and one men were killed; one officer and one hundred and twenty-seven men wounded, while forty-eight officers and six hundred men were taken prisoners.

According to the official report of that engagement, only twenty of Major Ferguson's force escaped, and among that number, one – Ephraim Sowers – could be accounted for as already a prisoner in the hands of the Americans.

The historian, Lossing, writes regarding this engagement:

"No battle during the war was more obstinately contested than this; for the Americans were greatly exasperated by the cruelty of the Tories, and to the latter it was a question of life or death. It was with difficulty that the Americans, remembering Tarleton's cruelty at Buford's defeat, could be restrained from slaughter, even after quarter was asked.

"On the morning after the battle a court-martial was held, and several of the Tory prisoners were found guilty of murder and other high crimes and hanged. Colonel Cleaveland had previously declared that if certain persons, who were the chief marauders, and who had forfeited their lives, should fall into his hands, he would hang them. Ten of these men were suspended upon a tulip tree, which is yet standing – a venerable giant of the forest. This was the closing scene of the battle on King's Mountain, an event which completely crushed the spirits of the Loyalists, and weakened, beyond recovery, the royal power in the Carolinas. Intelligence of the defeat of Ferguson destroyed all Cornwallis' hopes of Tory aid. He instantly left Charlotte, retrograded, and established his camp at Winnsborough, in Fairfield District, between the Wateree and Broad Rivers."