In September, Cornwallis detached Colonel Ferguson to the frontiers of North Carolina, for the purpose of encouraging the loyalists to take arms. A large number of the most profligate and abandoned repaired to his standard, and under the conduct of their leader committed atrocious excesses. This roused the country; the militia were out; and a force of mounted backwoodsmen, armed with rifles and their provision at their backs, led by Shelby and Sevier, afterwards first governors of Kentucky and Tennessee, and joined by various partisan corps, marched against Ferguson, who was advancing towards the mountains. On the first tidings of this formidable force Ferguson fled, pursued by 1,000 of the best mounted and surest marksmen out of double that number; and so rapid was the flight and the pursuit, that in thirty-six hours the mountaineer-backwoodsmen dismounted but once. Ferguson, finding escape impossible, chose a strong position at King’s Mountain, on the Catawbee River, the boundary line between North and South Carolina. The attack was furious and the defence exceedingly obstinate; but, at length, Ferguson being slain, and 300 of his followers killed or wounded, the survivors, to the number of 800, threw down their arms and surrendered. Ten of the most obnoxious of these were immediately hanged as traitors, an outrage which was soon richly retaliated. After this the backwoodsmen retired as rapidly to their homes, and their victory, when trumpeted abroad, raised the sinking spirit of the South.[37] Again Marion and Sumter were in the field, and the ubiquitous Tarleton, with his rapid cavalry, was despatched first against one and then the other. Marion was driven back to his swamps; and Sumter, having joined with other partisan corps in an attack on Fort Ninety-Six, defeated and took prisoner Major Wemyss, after which, having received intelligence through a deserter that Tarleton and his troop were out in pursuit, he took up a position on Blackstock Hill. Tarleton, after a severe loss, was obliged to retreat, leaving Sumter severely wounded, and in possession of the field. The close of the year was now approaching, and Sumter being conveyed to a place of safety, his followers dispersed.