The Battle of Cane Creek, September 12, 1780, a loyalist victory, was a small action between North Carolina militiamen led by Colonel Charles McDowell and a larger Tory force of Partisan regulars and militia led by British officer Major Patrick Ferguson. However, Crane Creek was far more important than a brief clash of arms. After Major Ferguson received word that McDowell had retreated further west over the Appalachians into what is today eastern Tennessee, he mistakenly thought his enemy was defeated. As such this reassured a proclamation he had sent two days prior to Cane Creek to settlers over the mountain. It was a threat of death and destruction to all those who would not claim loyalty to the British crown. Instead of fealty to the king, Ferguson’s brash ultimatum unleashed a tidal wave of inflamed wilderness pioneers. Hardened by years of skirmishing Native Americans, they were among the country’s deadliest fighters. They grabbed their rifles and crossed over the mountain into the Carolinas, with but one goal; Ferguson’s death.
Major Ferguson Commands Partisan Regulars & Tory Militia
British General Henry Clinton’s southern invasion forces captured the Southern Continental Army at Charleston, May 12, 1780. Though he had eradicated the Continental threat, Clinton still had to deal with a large and perpetual problem among rebel militia spread out over hundreds of miles of Carolina interior. One of the invasion’s goals was to tap into what was considered a large population of those still loyal to the crown, or Tories. Clinton selected one of his prodigy’s, Major Patrick Ferguson, to recruit and organize a large force of loyal militiamen, assigning him the post of Inspector of Militia. The Scottish officer from a titled family was an expert rifleman and had commanded a company of light infantry using breechloading rifles that he had patented. After recovering from wounds received at the Battle of Brandywine Creek, Ferguson made his mark among the military brass leading a partisan force in a savage, night time attack on an encampment of Continental Dragoons commanded by Colonel Casimir Pulaski. At the Egg Harbor Massacre, Oct. 14, 1778, he ordered no quarter as over fifty sleeping dragoons were brutally hacked to death, leaving the rest horribly wounded. Along with Partisan regulars from New Jersey and New York, loyalists trained and equipped as redcoat regulars, Ferguson was successful in gathering a small army of southern loyalist who he diligently trained.
Ferguson Unable to Squelch Backcountry Rebel Resistance
By the end of August, Ferguson was well established in the South Carolina backcountry of Ninety-Six with an estimated force of 1,800 Tories. Large rebel units under men like General Thomas Sumter of South Carolina, Georgian Col. Elijah Clarke, and ‘Over the Mountain Man’ North Carolinian Col. Isaac Shelby continued to harass and attack British outposts. After destroying the resurrected Southern Continental Army at the Battle of Camden, Aug. 16, 1780, and two days later, General Sumter’s South Carolina militia at the Battle of Fishing Creek, Aug. 18th, Cornwallis thought the timing was right to invade North Carolina. To do so, he needed his western flank clear of marauding bands of rebel militia. Ferguson was intent on satisfying his superiors and frequently sent out detachments of partisan regulars and mounted Tory militia after reported rebel bands. However, the fast-moving rebels, led by cunning commanders, proved difficult to pacify after repeated loyalist defeats such as Musgrove Mill and the Second Battle of Cedar Springs.
Worth noting, Generals Henry Clinton and Lord Charles Cornwallis did not get along, with Cornwallis often assuming his army as an independent command. Since Ferguson was one of Clinton’s favorite officers, the Scotsman was never part of Cornwallis’ inner circle. Therefore, His Lordship was not enthusiastic when Ferguson was given the loyalist militias. His doubts over Ferguson’s assignment was solidified when Colonel Nesbit Balfour, the commander of Ninety-Six, wrote Cornwallis that “As to Ferguson, his ideas are so wild and sanguine… it would be dangerous to trust him with the conduct of any plan.” But Cornwallis’ superior had assigned the Loyalist militia under Ferguson’s care and agree or not, Cornwallis had no option but to rely on Ferguson’s actions to secure his left flank.
Prior to Skirmish
Despite Cornwallis’ misgivings and Ferguson’s lack of success in eradicating backcountry rebel resistance, on September 2, 1780, Major Ferguson, along with seventy American Volunteer Regular Partisans and several hundred Tory militiamen, headed for western North Carolina and the foothills of the Appalachians. On September 7th, the Tory force crossed into North Carolina and marched to Gilbert Town, 55 miles west of Charlotte, where Ferguson set up his base of operations. Over the next five days, Ferguson’s detachments skirmished daily with small bands of rebels. Loyalist Lt. Alexander Chesney kept a journal of his experiences while riding with Ferguson’s force. He wrote that “…in Sep. we marched with all the horses and some foot past Gilbert town towards Col. Grimes, who was raising a body of rebels to oppose us, whom we succeeded in dispersing, taking many prisoners; and the foot at Gilbert’s town and encamped there for some time…”
There is no recorded record of a major skirmish resulting in many prisoners just before Ferguson camped at Gilbert Town. The Col. Grimes Lt. Chesney mentions along with the many prisoners were probably among those captured in the ensuing action at Cane Creek. Captain Grimes had been listed with Lt. Col. Charles McDowell in the Rowan County Militia that in 1777 became the Burke County Militia under promoted Colonel McDowell. Lt. Chesney may have confused the timing of when the loyalists clashed with McDowell’s rebels. A fervent patriot, McDowell had been active in the Cherokee Wars and was a legislator in the North Carolina Assembly. Since 1777, he led the newly formed Burke County Militia of far western North Carolina, participating in several skirmishes and battles in South Carolina including victories at Wofford’s Iron Works, Earle’s Ford, and Musgrove’s Mill.
Cane Creek Skirmish
Lt. Chesney carries on his narrative, “…soon afterwards got intelligence that Col. McDole [McDowell] was encamped on Cane and Silver Creeks, on which we marched toward the enemy, crossed the winding creek 23 times found the rebels strongly posted toward the head of it toward the mountain…” Colonel McDowell had been riding his militia along the Broad River towards the Watauga settlements on the far side of the Appalachians and encamped in the foothills near a pass at the head of Cane Creek, approximately 14 miles from Gilbert Town. September 11th, Tory scouts informed Ferguson of McDowell’s close presence. He departed Gilbert Town at two in the morning on the 12th, hoping to surprise the militia leader while he was still in camp. Ferguson mounted forty American Volunteers and one hundred militia. Ferguson would later write that McDowell’s militia numbered 220 whereas Volunteer dragoon Lt. Anthony Allaire put the rebel number at 300.
Captain. James Dunlop [often misspelt Dunlap] dragoon heading the American Volunteers, led the advance party as they rode towards the mountains. Scouts informed McDowell that Ferguson’s men were approaching. The rebel leader laid an ambush at Cane Creek Ford and positioned his militia on a hill that “was a small round elevation about a quarter of a mile from the base of the South Mountain then covered with timber and surrounded by a soft swamp.” As Captain Dunlop’s dragoons approached, a small party of rebels exposed themselves and the partisans pursued. Ferguson later wrote to Cornwallis that “Colonels Macdougals and Hampton appear’d suddenly within 100 yards of our front, descending from a commanding ridge.”
Accordingly, Dunlop’s men at first fell back from the initial rebel assault and firefight. Lt Allaire wrote that after descending the hill, the rebels soon after raced back up to form, appearing to the lieutenant that they had meant to challenge the crown forces. Word was that McDowell thought he was outnumbered and lost heart in the attack, deciding to drawback. Two months earlier, McDowell was accused of panicking during the action at Earle’s Ford on July 15, 1780. Interesting, Captain Dunlop had also led loyalist partisans at Earl’s Ford. While the rebels regrouped, Ferguson wrote to Cornwallis that he quickly ordered part of his force to “turn their right flank, where there was an easy ascent, and the few bayonets…advanced upon their center.” According to Chesney, the rebels opened with scattered shots at the charging horsemen before breaking to take flight. Captain Dunlop’s dragoons followed the fleeing rebels for a short distance before halting the pursuit. After the dragoons rejoined Ferguson’s men, the detachment returned to Gilbert Town.
As to casualties, dragoon Lt. Anthony Allaire recorded “We totally routed them killed one private, wounded a Capt. White [Joseph White who would recover to fight at Kings Mountain and Cowpens, McDowell reported 2 wounded], took seventeen prisoners, twelve horses, all their ammunition, which was only twenty pounds of powder, after which we marched to their encampment and found it abandoned by those Congress heroes. Our loss was two wounded and one killed. Among the wounded was Capt. Dunlap, who received two slight wounds [Dunlop’s wounds to his hips were serious that kept him out of action for some months].
Ferguson’s Proclamation and Threat
Two days before Cane Creek, John Buchanan artfully described what would prove the beginning of the end for Major Ferguson and his command of Partisan and Loyalist Militia. “On or about 10 September 1780, a lone rider headed west from Ferguson’s camp at Gilbert Town and began the long climb from the foothills up one of the steep trails that climbed the great mountains [Appalachians]… His name was Samuel Phillips. He was a Rebel who had been a British prisoner, but Patrick Ferguson had paroled him, for Samuel Phillips was a distant kinsman of Colonel Isaac Shelby, and he carried a message for Shelby and all the Over Mountain Men. Deadly in intent and import, the message had been given verbally to Phillips by Ferguson. “If they did not desist from their opposition to the British arms, he would march over the mountain, hang their leaders, and lay their country waste with fire and sword.” Ferguson’s decision would unleash a hornet’s nest of contempt and hatred that swarmed over the mountains to spell his doom.
Afterward
Cane Creek was important for this insignificant victory in which Ferguson witnessed McDowell’s militia scurrying to safety over the mountains and out of his reach, the leader of Tory militia came to the erroneous and fatal conclusion that the resistance to the Crown in western North Carolina was at an end. Once word of the fleeing rebel militia spread among the settlements, Ferguson’s recruiting efforts improved. Buoyed by this increase of fighters, he wrote to Cornwallis that the Tory militia gained confidence each day from their small offensive operations, while assessing the surrounding rebels as “utterly dismay’d.”
Seven days after the fighting at Cane Creek, Ferguson’s scouts reported 800 ‘over the mountain men’ mustering under Colonel Isaac Shelby in the Watauga, Nolichucky, and Holston river valley settlements in present-day eastern Tennessee. Though faced with this unsettling news, Ferguson held to his belief in the exaggeration of rebel strength, evidenced in the recent action at Cane Creek. He shrugged the threat from the far west, expressing disbelief that barely 300 wilderness rabble would cross the mountainous paths to confront him.
For Colonel Charles McDowell, it is most likely that Cane Creek signaled the end of any military confidence in the popular North Carolinian. From reports of cowardice at Earle’s Ford, a poor showing Wofford’s Iron Works, and his defeat at Cane Creek, McDowell’s withering support dwindled among western counties of the Carolinas. Colonel Isaac Shelby described McDowell as “too slow an officer for his views of the enterprise in which they were engaged.” McDowell saw the writing on the wall and prior to actions leading to the Battle of Kings Mountain, he volunteered to ride to Horatio Gates, turning command over to his brother and second in command, Major Joseph McDowell, who lead his men in battle.
Captain Dunlap recovered from his wounds and once more assumed command of dragoons, this time as Major Dunlap. While Cornwallis’ main army chased after General Greene and the Southern Continental Army in North Carolina, Dunlap was stationed at Ninety-Six to help subdue the district rebels. He was often accused of riding far from his post in haste after reported rebel bands. At the Battle of Beattie’s Hill on March 23, 1781, his luck ran out. He was surrounded by a superior force in which half his command was killed, with all but a dozen others wounded. Survivors were taken captive to Gilbert Town where a week later, Dunlop was murdered in custody by an Over Mountain Man.
Less than three weeks after this engagement, roughly 1,400 militiamen encamped near the site of the battle, hot on the trail of Ferguson. On October 7, 1780, at the Battle of King’s Mountain, Ferguson’s entire command was decimated; killed, wounded, and captured. Nine would be hanged as an example to other loyalists considering joining the British. In the final stage of battle, Ferguson was shot from his horse, his body riddled with eight bullets. He, along with 157 loyalists, were interned in shallow graves on a mountain locals afterwards called Wolf Mountain; for the ravishing wolves that dug up the remains.
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RESOURCE
American Revolution in North Carolina. “Cane Creek.”
Buchanan, John. The Road to Guilford Courthouse. 1997: John Wiley & Sons Inc., New York, NY.
Chesney, Alexander & edited by Williams, Samuel G. “Excepts from the Diary of Royalist Capt. Alexander Chesney.” Taken from King’s Mountain Battle, as Seen by a British Officer. Aug 9 – Oct 11, 1780. Tennessee Historical Magazine, April 1921.
Draper, Lyman Copeland. King’s Mountain and Its Heroes, History of the Battle of Kings Mountain, October 7, 1780 and the Events that Led to It. 1881: Peter G. Thomson Publisher, Cincinnati, Ohio.
Freeman, Trevor. “Skulking Shots on the Flank: The Skirmish at Cane Creek. August 16, 2018. All Things Liberty.
Henderson, Archibald. “Isaac Shelby, Revolutionary War Patriot and Border Hero.” North Carolina Booklet. Vol. XVI, No. 3 (Jan. 1917).
McCrady, Edward. History of South Carolina in the Revolution 1775-1780, Vol. III. 1969: Russell, New York, NY.
Southern, Ed (editor). Voices of the American Revolution in the Carolinas. 2009: John F. Blair Publishing, Durham, NC.