In 1777, Washington County was formed from Fincastle and Campbell made lieutenant colonel of militia. He was promoted to the full rank of colonel in April 1780; this was the rank he held at the Battle of Kings Mountain. For his services there he received praise from Gates, Washington, the Virginia Legislature, and the Continental Congress. Virginia presented him with a horse, saddle, and sword at public expense. Lord Cornwallis, with oblique recognition of Campbell’s prowess as a foe, threatened him with instant death should he be captured by the British. Before Campbell finally resigned his commission, on March 20, 1781, he and his command, a small force of riflemen, fought well at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse. He then enjoyed a brief term of office as a member of the House of Delegates from Washington County. Within a short time, however, he was recalled to duty, this time to serve under General Lafayette in Virginia. His military services were considered indispensable and the war was not yet won. William Campbell’s final service to his country was brief for, on August 22, 1781, while on active duty, he died after a short illness. He was buried at Rocky Mills, Hanover County, Va. There his body remained until 1823, when it was removed to “Aspenvale” for interment in the family burial ground. He was survived by a daughter and his wife, who remarried and lived until 1825. Such were some of the leaders in the drama—successful and honored in peace as in war. It is doubtful that any of them, however, reached greater heights than during that action, one October day, on the slopes of Kings Mountain. _Maj. Patrick Ferguson_ On June 4, 1744, Patrick Ferguson was born to Judge and Ann E. Murray Ferguson at Pitfour, the family estate in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Patrick was one of a family of six children in which he had an older and younger brother and three sisters. Ferguson’s father, Lord Pitfour, the Second Laird, had restored the family fortune lost by the First Laird of Pitfour as a result of unfortunate speculation in the South Sea Company. His children did not lack for the comforts normally enjoyed by the offspring of gentry. They were fortunately endowed also with a family background of learning and culture. With this background, it is not surprising that young Patrick’s education was started at an early age. Any hopes or expectations that his parents may have had, however, of developing him as a scholar were short lived. After finishing the little schooling he received at a military academy in London, Ferguson decided to use his ability as a horseman and hunter and to become a soldier.