The name Scotland was never applied to that country, now so designated, before the tenth century, but was called Alban, Albania, Albion. At an early period Ireland was called Scotia, which name was exclusively so applied before the tenth century. Scotia was then a territorial or geographical term, while Scotus was a race name or generic term, implying people as well as country. "The generic term of Scoti embraced the people of that race whether inhabiting Ireland or Britain. As this term of Scotia was a geographical term derived from the generic name of a people, it was to some extent a fluctuating name, and though applied at first to Ireland, which possessed the more distinctive name of Hibernia, as the principal seat of the race from whom the name was derived, it is obvious that, if the people from whom the name was taken inhabited other countries, the name itself would have a tendency to pass from the one to the other, according to the prominence which the different settlements of the race assumed in the history of the world; and as the race of the Scots in Britain became more extended, and their power more formidable, the territorial name would have a tendency to fix itself where the race had become most conspicuous. * * * The name in its Latin form of Scotia, was transferred from Ireland to Scotland in the reign of Malcolm the Second, who reigned from 1004 to 1034. The ‘Pictish Chronicle,’ compiled before 997, knows nothing of the name of Scotia as applied to North Britain; but Marianus Scotus, who lived from 1028 to 1081, calls Malcolm the Second ‘rex Scotiae,’ and Brian, king of Ireland, ‘rex Hiberniae.’ The author of the ‘Life of St. Cadroe,’ in the eleventh century, likewise applies the name of Scotia to North Britain." [Skene’s " Chronicles of the Picts and Scots," p. 77.]

In the meantime other forces were at work. Seeds of discontent had been sown by both Henry VIII, and his daughter Elizabeth, who tried to force the people of Ireland to accept the ritual of the Reformed Church. Both reaped abundant fruit of trouble from this ill-advised policy. Being inured to war it did not require much fire to be fanned into a flame of commotion and discord. Soon after his accession to the English throne, James I caused certain estates of Irish nobles, who had engaged in treasoriable practices, to be escheated to the crown. By this confiscation James had at his disposal nearly six counties in Ulster, embracing half a million of acres. These lands were allotted to private individuals in sections of one thousand, fifteen hundred, and two thousand acres, each being required to support an adequate number of English or Scottish tenantry. Protestant colonies were transplanted from England and Scotland, but chiefly from the latter, with the intent that the principles of the Reformation should subdue the turbulent natives. The proclamation inviting settlers for Ulster was dated at Edinburgh, March 28, 1609. Great care was taken in selecting the emigrants, to which the king gave his personal attention. Measures were taken that the settlers should be "from the inward parts of Scotland," and that they should be so located that "they may not mix nor inter-marry" with "the mere Irish." For the most part the people were received from the shires of Dumbarton, Renfrew, Ayre, Galloway, and Dumfries. On account of religious persecutions, in 1665, a large additional accession was received from Galloway and Ayre. The chief seat of the colonization scheme was in the county of Londonderry. The new settlers did not mix with the native population to any appreciable extent, especially prior to 1741, but mingled freely with the English Puritans and the refugee Huguenots. The native race was forced sullenly to retire before the colonists. Although the king had expressly forbidden any more of the inhabitants of the Western Isles to be taken to Ulster, yet the blood of the Highlander, to a great degree, permeated that of the Ulsterman, and had its due weight in forming the character of the Scotch-Irish. The commotions in the Highlands, during the civil wars, swelled the number to greater proportions. The rebellions of 1715 and 1745 added a large percentage to the increasing population. The names of the people are interesting, both as illustrating their origin, and as showing the extraordinary corruptions which some have undergone. As an illustration, the proscribed clan MacGregor, may be cited, which migrated in great numbers, descendants of whom are still to be found under the names of Grier, Greer, Gregor, etc., the Mac in general being dropped ; MacKinnon becomes McKenna, McKean, McCannon; Mac Nish, is McNeice, Menees, Munnis, Monies, etc.

The Scotch settlers retained the characteristic traits of their native stock and continued to call themselves Scotch, although molded somewhat by surrounding influences. They demanded and exercised the privilege of choosing their own spiritual advisers, in opposition to all efforts, of the hierarchy of England to make the choice and support the clergy as a state concern.

From the descendants of these people came the Scotch-Irish emigrants to America, who were destined to perform an important part on the theatre of action by organizing a successful revolt and establishing a new government. Among the early emigrants to the New World, although termed Scotch-Irish, and belonging to them we have such names as Campbell, Ferguson, Graham, McFarland, McDonald, McGregor, McIntyre, McKenzie, McLean, McPherson, Morrison, Robertson, Stewart, etc., all of which are distinctly Highlander and suggestive of the clans.

On the outbreak of the American Revolution the thirteen colonies numbered among their inhabitants about eight hundred thousand Scotch and Scotch-Irish, or a little more than one-fourth of the entire population. They were among the first to become actively engaged in that struggle, and so continued until the peace, furnishing fourteen major-generals, and thirty brigadier generals, among whom may be mentioned St. Clair, McDougall, Mercer, McIntosh, Wayne, Knox, Montgomery, Sullivan, Stark, Morgan, Davidson, and others. More than any other one element, unless the New England Puritans be excepted, they formed a sentiment for independence, and recruited the continental army. To their valor, enthusiasm and dogged persistence the victory for liberty was largely due. Washington pronounced on them a proud encomium when he declared, during the darkest period of the Revolution, that if his efforts should fail, then he would erect his standard on the Blue Ridge of Virginia. Besides warring against the drilled armies of Britain on the sea coast they formed a protective wall between the settlements and the savages on the west.

Among the fifty-six signers of the Declaration of Independence, nine were of this lineage, one of whom, McKean, served continuously in Congress from its opening in 1774 till its close in 1783, during a part of which time he was its president, and also serving as chief justice of Pennsylvania. The chairman of the committee that drafted the constitution of the United States, Rutledge, was, by ancestry, Scotch-Irish When the same instru-ment was submitted, the three states first to adopt it were the middle states, or Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, so 1 largely settled by the same class of people.

Turning again specifically to the Scotch-Irish emigrants it may be remarked that they had received in the old country a splendid physique, having large bones and sound teeth, besides being trained to habits of industry The mass of them were men of intelligence, resolution, energy, religious and moral in character. They were a God-fearing, liberty-loving, tyrant-hating, Sabbath-keeping covenant-adhering race, and schooled by a discipline made fresh and impressive by the heroic efforts at Derry and Enniskillin. Their women were fine specimens of the sex, about the medium height, strongly built, with fair complexion, light blue or grey eyes, ruddy cheeks, and faces indicating a warm heart, intelligence and courage; and possessing those virtues which constitute the redeeming qualities of the human race.

These people were martyrs for conscience sake. In 1711 a measure was carried through the British parliament that provided that all persons in places of profit or trust, and all common councilmen in corporations, who, while holding office, were proved to have attended any Nonconformist place of worship, should forfeit the place, and should continue incapable of public employment till they should depose that for a whole year they had not attended a conventicle. A fine of £40 was added to be paid the informer. There were other causes which assisted to help depopulate Ulster, among which was the destruction of the woolen trade about 1700, when twenty thousand left that province. Many more were driven away by the Test Act in 1704, and in 1732. On the failure to repeal that act the protestant emigration recommenced which robbed Ireland of the bravest defenders of English interests and peopled America with fresh blood of Puritanism.

The second great wave of emigration from Ulster occurred between 1771 and 1773, growing out of the Antrim evictions. In 1771 the leases on the estate of the marquis of Donegal, in Antrim, expired. The rents were placed at such an exhorbitant figure that the demands could not be met. A spirit of resentment to the oppressions of the landed proprietors at once arose, and extensive emigration to America was the result. In the two years that followed the Antrim evictions of 1772, thirty thousand protestants left Ulster for a land where legal robbery could not be permitted, and where those who sowed the seed could reap the harvest. From the ports of the North of Ireland one hundred vessels sailed for the New World, loaded with human beings. It has been computed that in 1773 and during the five preceding years, Ulster, by emigration to the American settlements, was drained of one-quarter of the trading cash, and a like proportion of its manufacturing population. This oppressed people, leaving Ireland in such a temper became a powerful adjunct in the prosecution of the Revolution which followed so closely on the wrongs which they had so cruelly suffered.

The advent of the first Scotch-Irish clergyman in America, so far as is now known, was in 1682, signalled by the arrival of Francis Makemie, the father of American Presbyterianism. Almost promptly he was landed in jail in New York, charged with the offense of preaching the gospel in a private house. Assisted by a Scottish lawyer from Philadelphia (who was silenced for his courage), he defended the cause of religious liberty with heroic courage and legal ability, and was ultimately acquitted by a fearless New York jury. Thus was begun the great struggle for religious liberty in America. Among those who afterwards followed were George McNish, from Ulster, in 1705, and John Henry, in 1709.

Early in the spring of 1718, Rev. William Boyd arrived in Boston as an agent of some hundreds of people who had expressed a desire to come to New England should suitable encouragement be offered them. With him he brought a brief memorial to which was attached three hundred and nineteen names, all but thir- teen of which were in a fair and vigorous hand. Governor Shute gave such general encouragement and promise of welcome, that on August 4, 1718, five small ships came to anchor at the wharf in Boston, having on board one hundred and twenty Scotch-Irish families, numbering in all about seven hundred and fifty individuals. In years they embraced those from the babe in arms to John Young, who had seen the frosts of ninety-five winters. Among the clergy who arrived were James McGregor, Cornwell, and Holmes.

In a measure these people were under the charge of Governor Shute. He must find homes for them. He dispatched about fifty of these families to Worcester. That year marked the fifth of its permanent settlement, and was composed of fifty log-houses, inhabited by two hundred souls. The new comers appear to have been of the poorer and more illiterate class of the five ship loads. At first they were welcomed, because needed for both civic and military reasons. In September of 1722 a township organization was effected, and at the first annual town meeting, names of the strangers appear on the list of officers. ‘With these emigrants was brought the Irish potato, and first planted in the spring of 1719. When their English neighbors visited them, on their departure they presented them with a few of the tubers for planting, and the recipients, unwilling to show any discourtesy, accepted the same, but suspecting a poisonous quality, carried them to the first swamp and threw them into the water. The same spring a few potatoes were given to a Mr. Walker, of Andover, by a family who had wintered with him. He planted them in the ground, and in due time the family gathered the "balls" which they supposed was the fruit. These were cooked in various ways, but could not be made palatable. The next Spring when plowing the garden, potatoes of great size were turned up, when the mistake was discovered. This introduction into New England is the reason why the now indispensable succulent is called "Irish potato." This vegetable was first brought from Virginia to Ireland in 1565 by slave-trader Hawkins, and from there it found its way to New England in 1718, through the Scotch-Irish.

The Worcester Scotch-Irish petitioned to be released from paying taxes to support the prevalent form of worship, as they desired to support their own method. Their prayer was contemptuously rejected. Two years later, or in 1738, owing to their church treatment, a company consisting of thirty-eight families, settled the new town of Pelham, thirty miles west of Worcester. The scandalous destruction of their property in Worcester, in 1740, caused a further exodus which resulted in the establishing the towns of Warren and Blandford, both being incorporated in 1741. The Scotch-Irish town of Colerain, located fifty miles northwest of Worcester was settled in 1739.

Londonderry, New Hampshire, was settled in April, 1719, forming the second settlement, from the five ships. Most of these pioneers were men in middle life, robust and persevering. Their first dwellings were of logs, covered with bark. It must not be thought that these people, strict in their religious conceptions, were not touched with the common feelings of ordinary humanity. It is related that when John Morrison was building his house his wife came to him and in a persuasive manner said, "Aweel, aweel, dear Joan, an’ it maun be a log-house, do make it a log heegher nor the lave ;" (than the rest). The first frame house built was for their pastor, James McGregor. The first season they felt it necessary to build two strong stone garrison-houses in order to resist any attack of the Indians. It is remarkable that in neither Lowell’s war, when Londonderry was strictly a frontier town, nor in either of the two subsequent French and Indian wars, did any hostile force from the northward ever approach that town. During the twenty-five years preceding the revolution, ten distinct towns of influence, in New Hampshire, were settled by emigrants from Londonderry, besides two in Vermont and two in Nova Scotia; while families, sometimes singly and also in groups, went off in all directions, especially along the Connecticut river and over the ridge of the Green Mountains. To these brave people, neither the crown nor the colonies appealed in vain. Every route to Crown Point and Ticonderago had been tramped by them time and again. With Colonel Williams they were at the head of Lake George in 1755, and in the battle with Dieskau that followed; they were with Stark and lord Howe, under Abercrombie, in the terrible defeat at Ticonderago in 1758; others toiled with Wolfe on the Heights of Abraham; and in 1777, fought under Stark at Bennington, and against Burgoyne at Saratoga.

A part of the emigrants intended for New Hampshire settled in Maine, in what is now Portland, Topsham, Bath and other places. Unfortunately soon after these settlements were established some of them were broken up by Indian troubles, and some of the colonists sought refuge with their countrymen at Londonderry, but the greater part removed to Pennsylvania,—from 1730 to 1733 about one hundred and fifty families, principally of Scotch descent. In 1735, Warren, Maine, was settled by twenty-seven families, some of whom were of recent emigration and others from the first arrival in Boston in 1718. In 1753 the town received an addition of sixty adults and many children brought from Scotland.

The Scotch-Irish settlement at Salem in Washington county, New York, came from Monaghan and Ballibay, Ireland. Under the leadership of their minister, Rev. Thomas Clark, three hundred sailed from Newry, May 10, 1764, and landed in New York in July following. On September 30, 1765, Mr. Clark obtained. twelve thousand acres of the "Turner Grant," and upon this land he moved his parishioners, save a few families that had been induced to go to South Carolina, and some others that remained in Stillwater, New York. The great body of these settlers took possession of their lands, which had been previously surveyed into tracts of eighty-eight acres each, in the year 1767. The previous year had been devoted to clearing the lands, building houses, etc. Among the early buildings was a log church, the first religious place of worship erected between Albany and Canada. March 2, 1774, the legislature erected the settlement into a township named New Perth. This name remained until March 7, 1788, when it was changed to Salem.

The Scotch-Irish first settled in Somerset county, New Jersey, early in the last century, but not at one time but from time to time.

These early settlers repudiated the name of Irish, and took it as an offense to be so called. They claimed, and truly, to be Scotch. The term "Scotch-Irish" is quite recent, but has come into general use.

From the three centers, Worcester, Londonderry and Wiscasset, the Scotch-Irish penetrated and permeated all New England; Maine the most of all, next New Hampshire, then Massachusetts, and in lessening Order, Vermont, Connecticut and Rhode Island. They were one sort of people, belonging to the same grade and sphere of life. In worldly goods they were poor, but the majority could read and write, and if possessed with but one book that was the Bible, yet greatly esteeming Fox’s "Book of Martyrs" and Bunyon’s "Pilgrim’s Progress." Whatever their views, they were held in common.

The three doors that opened to the Scotch-Irish emigrant, in the New World, were the ports of Boston, Charleston and New Castle, in Delaware, the great bulk of whom being received at the last named city, where they did not even stop to rest, but pushed their way to their future homes in Pennsylvania. No other state received so many of them for permanent settlers. Those who landed in New York found the denizens there too submissive to foreign dictation, and so preferred Pennsylvania and Mary-land, where the proprietary governors and the people were in im mediate contact. Francis Machemie had organized the first church in America along the eastern shore of Maryland and in the adjoining counties of Virginia.

The wave of Quaker settlements spent its force on the line of the Conestoga creek, in Lancaster county. The Scotch and Scotch-Irish arriving in great numbers were permitted to locate beyond that line, and thus they not only became the pioneers, but long that race so continued to be. In 1725, so great had been the wave of emigration into Pennsylvania, that James Logan, a native of Armagh, Ireland, but not fond of his own countrymen who were not Quakers, declared, "It looks as if Ireland were to send all her inhabitants hither; if they continue to come they will make themselves proprietors of the province ;" and he further condemned the bad taste of the people who were forcing them-selves where they were not wanted The rate of this invasion may be estimated from the rise in population from twenty thousand, in 1701, to two hundred and fifty thousand in 1745, which embraced the entire population of that colony. Between the years 1729 and 1750, there was an annual arrival of twelve thousand, mostly from Ulster. Among the vessels that helped to inaugurate this great tide was the good ship "George and Ann," which set sail from Ireland on May 9th, 1729, and brought over the McDowells, the Irvines, the Campbells, the O’Neills, the McElroys, the Mitchells, and their compatriots.

Soon after the emigrants landed at New Castle they found their way along the branches of various rivers to the several set tlements on the western frontier. The only ones known to have come through New York was the "Irish settlement" in Allen township, Northampton county, composed principally of families from Londonderry, New Hampshire, where, owing to the rigid climate, they could not be induced to remain It grew but slowly, and after 1750 most of the descendants passed on towards the Susquehanna and down the Cumberland.

As early as 1720 a colony was formed on the Neshaminy, in Bucks County, which finally became one of the greatest land- marks of that race. The settlements that commenced as early as 1710, at Fagg Manor, at Octorara, at New London, and at Brandywine Manor, in Chester County, formed the nucleus for subsequent emigration for a period of forty years, when they also declined by removals to other sections of the State, and to the colonies of the South. Prior to 1730 there were large settlements in the townships of Colerain, Pequea, and Leacock, in Lancaster County. Just when the pioneers arrived in that region has not been accurately ascertained, but some of them earlier than 1720. Within a radius of thirty-five miles of Harrisburgh are the settlements of Donegal, Paxtang, Derry, and Hanover, founded between 1715 and 1724; from whence poured another stream on through the Cumberland Valley, across the Potomac, down through Virginia and into the Carolinas and Georgia. The valley of the Juniata was occupied in 1749. The settlements in the lower part of York County date from 1726. From 1760 to 1770 settlements rapidly sprung up in various places throughout Western Pennsylvania. Soon after 1767 emigrants settled on the Youghiogheny, the Monongahela and its tributaries, and in the years 1770 and 1771, Washington County was colonized. soon after the wave of population extended to the Ohio River. From this time forward Western Pennsylvania was characteristically Scotch-Irish.

These hardy sons were foremost in the French and Indian Wars. The Revolutionary struggle caused them to turn their attention to statesmanship and combat, - every one of whom was loyal to the cause of independence. The patriot army had its full share of Scotch-Irish representation. That thunderbolt of war, Anthony Wayne, [Stille, e, Life of Wayne, p. 5, says he was not Scotch-Irish.] hailed from the County of Chester, The ardent manner in which the cause of the patriots was espoused is illustrated, in a notice of a marriage that took place in 1778, in Lancaster County, the contracting parties being of the Ulster race. The couple is denominated "very sincere Whigs." It "was truly a Whig wedding, as there were present many young gentlemen and ladies, and not one of the gentlemen but had been out when called on in the service of his country; and it was well known that the groom, in particular, had proved his heroism, as well as Whigism, in several battles and skirmishes. After the marriage was ended, a motion was made, and heartily agreed to by all present, that the young unmarried ladies should form themselves into an association by the name of the ‘Whig Association of Unmarried Young Ladies of America,’ in which they should pledge their honor that they would never give their hand in marriage to any gentleman until he had first proved himself a patriot, in readily turning out when called to defend his country from slavery, by a spirited and brave conduct, as they would not wish to be the mothers of a race of slaves and cowards.'" [Dunlap’s "Pennsylvania Packet," June 17, 1778.]

Pennsylvania was the gateway and first resting place, and the source of Scotch-Irish adventure and enterprise as they moved west and south. The wave of emigration striking the eastern border of Pennsylvania, in a measure was deflected southward through Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas, reaching and crossing the Savannah river, though met at various points by counter streams of the same race, which had entered the continent through Charleston and other southern ports. Leaving Pennsylvania and turning southward, the first colony into which the stream poured, was Maryland, the settlements being principally in the narrow strip which constitutes the western portion, although they never scattered all over the colony.

Proceeding southward traces of that race are found in Virginia east of the Blue Ridge, in the latter part of the seventeenth and early in the eighteenth century. They were in Albemarle Nelson, Campbell, Prince Edward, Charlotte and Orange counties, and even along the great valley west of the Blue Ridge. It was not, however, until the year 1738 that they entered the valley in great numbers, and almost completely possessed it from the Pennsylvania to the North Carolina line. During the French and Indian wars the soldiers of Virginia were mainly drawn from this section, and suffered defeat with Washington at the Great Meadows, and with Braddock at Fort Duquesne, but by their firmness saved the remnant of that rash general’s army. In 1774 they won the signal victory at Point Pleasant which struck terror into the Indian tribes across the Ohio.

The American Revolution was foreshadowed in 1765, when England began her oppressive measures regardless of the inalienable and chartered rights of the colonists of America. It was then the youthful Scorch-Irishman, Patrick Henry, introduced into the Virginia House of Burgesses, the resolutions denying the validity of the Act of the British parliament, and by Scotch-Irish votes he secured their adoption against the combined efforts of the old leaders. At the first call for troops by congress to defend Boston, Daniel Morgan at once raised a company from among his own people, in the lower Virginia valley, and by a forced march of six hundred miles reached the beleaguered city in three weeks. With his men he trudged through the wilderness of Maine and appeared before Quebec; and later, on the heights of Saratoga, with his riflemen, he poured like a torrent upon the ranks of Burgogne. Through the foresight of Henry, a commission was given to George Rogers Clark, in 1778, to lead a secret expedition against the northwestern forts. The soldiers were recruited from among the Scotch-Irish settlements west of the Blue Ridge. The untold hardships, sufferings and final success of this expedition, at the treaty of Peace, in 1783, gave the great west to the United States

The greater number of the colonists of North Carolina was Scotch and Scotch-Irish, in so much so as to have given direction to its history. There were several reasons why they should be so attracted, the most potent being a mild climate, fertile lands, and freedom of religious worship. The greatest accession at any one time was that in 1736, when Henry McCulloch secured sixty-four thousand acres in Duplin county, and settled upon these lands four thousand of his Ulster countrymen. About the same time the Scotch began to occupy the lower Cape Fear. Prior to 1750 they were located in the counties of Granville, Orange, Rowan and Mecklenburg, although it is uncertain when they settled between the Dan and the Catawba. Braddock’s defeat, in 1755, rendered border life dangerous, many of the newcomers turning south into North Carolina, where they met the other stream of their countrymen moving upward from Charleston along the banks of the Santee, Wateree, Broad, Pacolet, Ennoree and Saluda, and this continued till checked by the Revolution. These people generally were industrious, sober and intelligent, and with their advent begins the educational history of the state. Near Greensborough, in 1767, was established a classical school, and in 1770, in the town of Charlotte, Mecklenburg county, was chartered Queen’s College, but its charter was repealed by George III However, it continued to flourish, and was incorporated as "Liberty Hall," in 1777. The Revolution closed its doors; Cornwallis quartered his troops within it, and afterwards burned the buildings.

Under wrongs the Scotch-Irish of North Carolina were the. most restless of all the colonists. They were zealous advocates for freedom of conscience and security against taxation unless imposed by themselves. During the administration of acting Governor Miller, they imprisoned the president and six members of the council, convened the legislature, established courts of justice, and for two years exercised all the functions of government; they derided the authority of Governor Eastchurch; they imprisoned, impeached, and sent into exile Governor Sothel, for his extortions, and successfully resisted the effort of lord Granville to establish the Church of England in that colony. In 1731, Governor Burrington wrote: "The people of North Carolina are neither to be cajoled or outwitted, * * * always behaved insolently to their Governors. Some they imprisoned, others they have drove out of the country, and at other times set up a government of their own choice." In 1765, when a vessel laden with stamp paper arrived, the people over-awed the captain, who soon sailed away. The officers then adopted a regular system of oppression and extortion, and plundered the people at every turn of life. The people formed themselves into an association "for regulating public grievances and abuse of powers." The royal governor, Tryon (the same who later originated the infamous plot to poison Washington), raised an army of eleven hundred men, and marched to inflict summary punishment on the defiant sons of liberty. On May 16, 1771, the two forces met on the banks of the Great Alamance. After an engagement of two hours the patriots failed. These men were sturdy, patriotic members of three Presbyterian churches. On the field of battle were their pastors, graduates of Princeton. Tryon used his victory so savagely as to drive an increasing stream of settlers over the mountains into Tennessee, where they made their homes in the valley of the Watauga, and there nurtured their wrongs; but the day of their vengeance was rapidly approaching.

The stirring times of 1775 found the North Carolinians ready for revolt. They knew from tradition and experience the monstrous wrongs of tyrants. When the people of Mecklenburg county learned in May, 1775, that parliament had declared the colonies in a state of revolt, they did not wait for the action of congress nor for that of their own provincial legislature, but adopted resolutions, which in effect formed a declaration of independence.

The power, valor and uncompromising conduct of these men is illustrated in their conduct at the battle of King’s Mountain, fought October 7, 1780 It was totally unlike any other in American history, being the voluntary uprising of the people rushing to arms to aid their distant kinsmen when their own homes were menaced by savages They served without pay and without the hope of reward. The defeat of Gates at Camden laid the whole of North Carolina at the feet of the British. Flushed with success, Colonel Furguson of the 71st Regiment, at the head of eleven hundred men marched into North Carolina and took up his position at Gilbert Town, in order to intercept those retreating in that direction from Camden, and to crush out the spirit of the patriots in that region Without any concert of action volunteers assembled simultaneously, and placed themselves under tried leaders They were admirably fitted by their daily pursuits for the privations they were called upon to endure. They had no tents, baggage, bread or salt, but subsisted on potatoes, pumpkins and roasted corn, and such venison as their own rifles could procure. Their army consisted of four hundred men, under Colonel William Campbell, from Washington county, Virginia, two hundred and forty were under Colonel Isaac Shelby, from Sullivan county, North Carolina, and two hundred and’ forty men, from Washington county, same state, under John Sevier, which assembled at Watauga, September 25, where they were joined by Charles McDowell, with one hundred and sixty men, Colonel from the counties of Burke and Rutherford, who had fled before the enemy to the western waters. While McDowell, Shelby and Sevier were in consultation, two paroled prisoners arrived from Furguson with the message that if they did not "take protection under his standard, he would march his army over the mountains, hang their leaders, and lay waste their country with fire and sword." On their march to meet the army of Furguson they were for twenty-four hours in the saddle. They took that officer by surprise, killed him and one hundred and eighty of his men, after an engagement of one hour and five minutes, the greater part of which time a heavy and incessant fire was kept up on both sides, with a loss to themselves of only twenty killed and a few wounded. The remaining force of the enemy surrendered at discretion, giving up their camp equipage and fifteen hundred stand of arms. On the morning after the battle several of the Royalist (Tory) prisoners were found guilty of murder and other high crimes, and hanged. This was the closing scene of the battle of King’s Mountain, an event which completely crushed the spirit of the Royalists, and weakened beyond recovery the power of the British in the Carolinas. The intelligence of Furguson’s defeat destroyed all Cornwallis’s hopes of aid from those who still remained loyal to Britain’s interests. The men oppressed by British laws and Tryon’s cruelty were not yet avenged, for they were with Morgan at the Cowpens and with Greene at Guildford Court House, and until the close of the war.

In the settling of South Carolina, every ship that sailed from Ireland for the port of Charleston, was crowded with men, women and children, which was especially true after the peace of 1763. About the same date, within one year, a thousand families came into the state in that wave that originated in Pennsylvania, bringing with them their cattle, horses and hogs. Lands were alloted to them in the western woods, which soon became the most popular part of the province, the up-country population being overwhelmingly Scotch-Irish. They brought with them and retained, in an eminent degree, the virtues of industry and economy, so peculiarly necessary in a new country. To them the state is indebted for much of its early literature. The settlers in the western part of the colony, long without the aid of laws, were forced to band themselves together for mutual protection. The royal governor, Montague, in 1764, sent an army against them, and with great difficulty a civil war was averted. The division thus created reappeared in 1775, on the breaking out of the Revolution. The state suffered greatly from the ravages of Cornwallis, who rode roughly over it, although her sons toiled heroically in defence of their firesides. The little bands in the east gathered around the standard of Marion, and in the north and west around those of Sumter and Pickens. They kept alive the flame of liberty in the swamps, and when the country appeared to be subdued, it burst forth in electric flashes striking and withering the hand of the oppressor. Through the veins of most of the patriots flowed Scotch-Irish blood; and to the hands of one of this class, John Rutledge, the destinies of the state were committed.