The scene was picturesque in its natural features. In the valley and on the surrounding hills the thick woods were no longer dressed in summer green. Their leaves, touched by the first frosts, had begun to put on their autumnal coats of yellow, orange and red, mingled with the perpetual verdure of cedars and pines. In the midst stood a thousand men in simple, homely attire. They were healthy, because of the pure, tonic air they breathed--strong, by physical exercise among the hills--alert, by living in dangers from savage foes--equipped with guns, which their sharp eyes and skillful fingers made sure of aim and deadly in effect. Altogether, there were plentiful materials present for the pencil of an artist. The patriotic enthusiasm that filled the hearts of the gathered mountaineers, in harmony with the natural surroundings, gave a nobility to the scene that could not be portrayed on canvas or described but imperfectly in verse. They who led in the enterprise had reverence of mind. It was a bold undertaking for a body of raw militia to encounter trained and tried soldiers in deadly fray, but their trust was not chiefly in themselves. There were Scotch-Irish Presbyterians among them who had strong faith in God, and the influence of their teaching and life had been felt by other settlers. Before the march began, prayer was offered by the Rev. Samuel Doak to Him who is supreme in heaven and earth. The minister associated the occasion and its purpose with the wars of Israel, under a departed dispensation of religion. One historian relates that the petitions were “accompanied with a few stirring remarks befitting the occasion, closing with the Bible quotation, ‘the sword of the Lord and of Gideon,’ when the sturdy Scotch-Irish Presbyterians around him, clothed in their tidy hunting-shirts and leaning upon their rifles in an attitude of respectful attention, shouted in patriotic acclaim: ‘The sword of the Lord and of our Gideons!’”[12] Buoyant with hope of triumph they went forward: on over the Little Doe and Big Doe rivers,--then through a gap between the Yellow and the Roan mountains,--then down along Roaring Creek and Big Toe River, following ravines, over stony ground. All around them from the start, the mountains stood, sublime in grandeur,--one, not far distant, higher than any other in the Atlantic States,--and mountains were ahead of them. On they went,--through the Blue Ridge at Gillespie’s Gap,--then over Silver and Linville mountains to the Catawba River,--along its bank and across Linville River to Quaker Meadows. There Col. Cleveland and Maj. Winston, with three hundred and fifty North Carolinians, joined them.