Meanwhile, Cornwallis, flushed with his victory over Gates (August 16) at Camden, was eager for other triumphs, and by his direction Ferguson and his troops pressed their way up to the present Rutherfordton, North Carolina. The result was to encourage the Tory inhabitants and rally them to his support. Already, to his displeasure, the mountaineers had given him lessons of their prowess in battle. In September he sent a message to the officers on the western rivers that “if they did not quit their opposition to the British Government, he would march over the mountains, hang their leaders, and lay their country waste with fire and sword.” This fierce missive did not frighten or deter those to whom it went. It rather incited them to hostile action. The presence in their country of refugee Whigs, some of whom had but recently arrived, was a constant reminder of the bitter and relentless hate of their enemies, that provoked them to sturdy resistance. Their patriotic spirits only needed an incentive to go forth to war, and Ferguson’s threat furnished it. Col. Shelby, on receiving it, immediately rode fifty miles to confer with Col. Sevier. They determined to anticipate Ferguson, to call their riflemen to arms and march unexpectedly upon his camp. Col. Wm. Campbell, of Washington County, Virginia, near by, was asked and consented to join the expedition. Sycamore Shoals, Carter County, Tennessee, was chosen as the place, and September 25, as the time, for assembling the forces. On the appointed day, one thousand and forty men met at the Watauga River, armed with Deckard rifles--many of them with their feet in moccasins. Officers and men wore hunting-shirts; every soldier had a shot-pouch, knife, tomahawk, knapsack and blanket. Four hundred men under Campbell were from Washington County, Virginia, two hundred and forty under Shelby were from Sullivan County, North Carolina, and the same number under Sevier, from Washington County, North Carolina. One hundred and more, under Col. McDowell, were exiles from east of the Alleghanies.