Jacob Shook and the War of Independence
by Bob Jones
(preliminary rough draft, unfinished and unillustrated 11/15//2000)

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People's lives don't happen in a vacuum, so in order to understand the events of a past life it is well that we look to the history of the times to understand the individual. Having left the old world fleeing from persecution and poverty thrust upon them by the various governments and their disputes, the Palatine Refugees had come to the New World and set out to leave such things behind. Soon however the rich land holders and government tax collectors found their way to the father's refuge in Pennsylvania. Under these circumstances many an independent and proud German son brought their families further into the American frontier hoping to avoid such troubles. Such was the son of Johann Schuck, Georg "Hans" Shook.

When the family of Georg "Hans" Shook, including his teenaged son, Johann Jacob Shook, came to the Catawba in the 1760s this was a new land, vacant for the most part, and wild. Far from the powers of Europe it seemed, and safe from the crowded "civilizations" of the east coast. The emigrants continued to flow into the county however, and by 1770 it began to appear that such forces were once again beginning to appear at their rough-hewn doorsteps.

North Carolina was not a quiet place in the early 1770s. A "grassroots" protest had arisen in the area over the corruption of the local officials such as sheriffs, judges and tax collectors all of which were appointed by the Royal Governor of North Carolina, Governor Tryon from his ‘palace" in Edenton, NC. The Easterners who dominated the Government awarded these officials their posts as political "pork barrel". This was done at the expense of the populations of the western counties, settlers from Pennsylvania mainly, who were disenfranchised and treated as new comers and outsiders by the established power brokers who all resided in the eastern counties.

These Westerners had come beginning in 1745, down the Great Wagon Road from Pennsylvania. They were mainly German and Scotch Irish and were for the most part poor farmers. They had come in such large numbers to the piedmont of North Carolina because of offers of cheap land, in this area primarily land from a huge parcel given to Lord Granville by the King of England as the price of purchase of Granville's part of the Charter of North Carolina. Carolina (North and South) had been given to eight English aristocrats, including Granville's grandfather by King Charles almost a century before. The present King had wanted the colony returned to the crown and this five million acre tract was the specie with which he purchased Granville's part back in 1744. Lord Granville intended to turn his holdings into quick cash, and so began aggressively advertising the sale of the land, on gracious terms, across the crowded townships of Pennsylvania.

The Regulators

After 1756 the land was filling up quickly, and new counties were formed of Orange, Rowan, Mecklenburg and Tryon. In these new places crude towns grew up surrounding log courthouses. Of Charlotte, Tryon, Salisbury and Hillsboro, Hillsboro was the largest by far, and soon became the center of western opposition to the easterner's abuse. This abuse centered upon land. The scheme was that a new tax would be levied by the local tax agent. The settler wouldn't know about the tax, and even if he did find out he probably wouldn't have the money to pay. Often even those with cash would refuse to pay because it was obvious that the tax was a scam. In all cases if the tax went unpaid the sheriff would seize the property and auction it off to cronies in a closed auction. The corrupt official would get the money and the Sheriff's friends would own the land. If the disposed settler took the affair to court the Sheriff and Royal Tax Agent would see to it that the Judge received his ‘fair" share. This abuse of power grew and grew until by 1770 it had become unbearable to the settlers.

Militia was formed into units called Rangers in the several counties by citizen's groups. These groups announced that they would "regulate" the actions of these corrupt officials, if need be, by force of arms. They didn't see themselves as revolutionaries against the King, they felt they were vigilantes against local corruption. The King, and especially Governor Tryon saw things differently. When an armed group marched into Hillsboro and ran the Governor's agents out of town in 1770, officials in New Bern saw it as treason and reacted swiftly with a call to arms. In May 1771 several thousand militia from the eastern counties of NC marching under Governor Tryon met several thousand Regulators from the western counties at Alamance Creek near present Greensboro, North Carolina and fought a short battle. The Regulator forces were dispersed. (read more about the Regulator Movement on my Jones web site) LINK

The Regulators as many people might assume, were not the future leaders of the coming Revolution. After the battle several leaders were hung by the British in Hillsboro, many more left the state moving west to Georgia or what would become Tennessee. Hundreds more were "pardoned" under oath, a situation that could lead to their hanging if ever again caught in arms against the Government. During the Revolution many ex-Regulators sat out the war, and many fought for the British.

All this activity probably didn't affect Jacob and his family much as they were at the far extent of the North Carolina frontier. From his home just west of the Catawba River it was a two day trip to the nearest town at Salisbury. And Salisbury, the county seat, was just a collection of about twenty small cabins around a dusty crossroad in those days. The Shooks hadn't faced the abuses that others had personally, because their land was so far away from things that even the sheriff and his gang didn't want to bother with it. In fact, Lord Granville had died in 1763 and his land office closed. The land Georg settled wasn't even registered until 1772 when the offices reopened under Granville's heirs. The main thing that the Regulator troubles did was generate an "us against them" mentality in the minds of the western settlers. Most of these upright and religious settlers knew the wrongs that had been done and felt that the Royal Government had deserted them in their just demands for correction. In fact the Royal Government did take measures to curb the abuses after the battle but it was too little, too late in the minds of most settlers.

In 1773 and 1774 new problems arose for the settlers. Rumors of Indian War were circulated. Stories came over the mountains from the Watauga Settlements that the Cherokee were unhappy and that there were voices among the nation calling for war. Once again hunting rifles came down from over the hearth and Militia companies were formed. An uneasy feeling gripped the Catawba Valley as the dread of Indian raids crept into the households.

The Revolution Begins

By early 1775 news had come to the settlers about the British engagements with Patriots at Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts, and now troubles seemed to be both east and west. In May a meeting took place in Charlotte, NC in which those assembled declared their independence from England in the Mecklenburg Declarations. Then in the summer of 1775 the Royal Government was pressed back to Wilmington by aroused Patriots, and the Royal Governor called for all loyal citizens of the King to arm themselves. As pressure increased Governor Martin (Tryon had been sent to New York after the Regulator troubles) was forced to govern from a ship off the coast. The center of Tory activity was in the area settled by the Scotch Highlanders at the Cross Creek settlement near today's Fayetteville, NC. As rumors of this concentration of forces at Cross Creek spread the new Patriot government sitting in Hillsboro called for the formation of a North Carolina Regiment to suppress the Tories.

Off to Cross Creek

In late 1775 Griffith Rutherford was appointed by the Patriot Government to recruit ten companies of militia from Rowan County to participate in this action. The call went out up the Yadkin and Catawba Valleys and soon hundreds of men had come to Salisbury to answer the call. 26 year old Jacob and 19 year old Andrew Shook were there among the recruits. After a bit of drilling and marching to and fro about Salisbury General Rutherford decided his men were as ready as they could be under the circumstances and the rag tag little army marched off toward Fayetteville, 60 miles away "as the crow flies". This had to be in February 1776. (Jacob stated that it was in March, 1775, however the action he speaks of happened a year later. It's likely that old memories weren't that precise so many years later.)

While Jacob and Andrew were at Cross Creek a battle was fought at Moore's Creek Bridge north of Wilmington on February 27, 1776 by their comrades in arms. This is an interesting incident not well known. It starts with the defeat of the Scots in their struggle for Independence against England in the early 18th century. Many Scots were unable to accept British mastery in their homeland so they pled to be allowed to go to America. The King finally relented and agreed to grant these Scots a huge tract of land in Eastern NC at Cross Creek. In return for this and transportation for their families they took a Loyalty Oath to the King on the blood of their fathers. The sons of these old Scottish Patriots were faced with the Revolution in America less than 25 years later. Having failed to integrate with the existing population in North Carolina many saw the cause as not their own. After the experience of their fathers they also saw resistance to the crown as futile and risky business. When the Governor of North Carolina called them out in 1775 in the name of the King to secure Wilmington from the growing Patriot movement, they grudgingly took to the march. Patriot militia came from far and wide to Wilmington when they heard the Scots were on the march. The Scots weren't very enthused about the job at hand so they moved slowly. The Patriot army, rag tag as it was, arrived north of Wilmington first and awaited the Scots in ambush.

The rest of the story is painted like some Wagnerian tale... The Patriots were in the woods on a steep bank behind Moore's Creek. A narrow log bridge divided them from the Scots. The Patriots removed the planking from the bridge and greased the runners with hog fat then lay in wait. The Scots, aware of them ahead, lined up in the ancient Scot fashion, all in Kilts and the colors of the clans. With faces painted Celtic blue and the leaders carrying the great broadswords of their ancestors high above their heads the bold clansmen moved forward with Bagpipes wailing. At the bridge they were met by the woodsmen's hunting guns firing from concealment. The rifle fire learned on the frontier tore great gaps in the swordsmen's ranks, but they came on weathering the storm of lead. Finally they reached the bridge and found it impossible to cross, but they refused to stop so one after another they marched forward to fall into the creek directly under the guns of the Patriots.

Finally the Scots determined they had had enough for honor, they had bled enough for a King they really didn't care for, so they withdrew from the field. The Patriots pursued the fleeing Tories, and more and more Militia joined the patriot's on the march. At Mingo Creek the Torie's camp was overrun. Many escape singly through the brush and escaped the area, many others were killed or captured. The leaders and officers, and many notorious Tories that had rallied to the cause were jailed. Many would spend four or five years languishing in rude jails. The bulk of the prisoners they then paroled them on an oath to never again fight the Patriots. In this way, having sworn an oath to both the opposing powers not to fight against them, the Scots were allowed to sit out the rest of the war in relative peace. Although some did break parole, and the area remained a seat of British sympathy, until Cornwallis arrived 5 years later it was a quite area. Thus North Carolina was secured from British control for the early years of the Revolution.

After subduing the local Scots at Cross Creek and jailing the leaders that hadn't gone with the militia to fight at Moore's Creek, Rutherford and his men marched hard to get to the battlefield in time to be of service, however by the time they arrived the fighting was finished. Jacob and Andrew probably returned home, their enlistment over, but their troubles were not.

Rumors had been rife across the frontier about the Tories and the British and their intrigues with the Cherokee. John Stuart, the King's Indian Agent had been working closely with his agents among the nation to arm and train the Cherokee troops. Great quantities of firearms, powder and lead had been transported to the nation by way of Augusta GA it was said, and an attack was eminent. The pioneers had a hard time believing even the Tories would consider unleashing the horrors of Indian War on the colonists, but a letter to General Gage, the British commander of New York from John Stuart had been intercepted in late 1775. In the letter it was stated plainly that such an attack was being organized. Even with this, the communication and organization of the far frontier prevented more than minor preparations from being made.

On July 1, 1776, in conjunction with the British attack on Charleston SC, the Cherokee came whooping out of the mountains and fell on the isolated farmsteads of settlers across the foothills of Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia. On July 1 and 2 they murdered 37 people on the upper Catawba River alone and sent the remaining settlers scurrying into stockades across the countryside. With the British rifles, the tomahawk, and the scalping knife no man, woman or child was spared. No one may ever know how many fell to the Cherokee in the next few weeks. Many settlers abandoned their farms for good and moved east during the turmoil. Other families died to a person on their secluded farms, only an overgrown chimney or a vacant field to be found years later to mark their passage from this life. The Cherokee were hesitant to attack the garrisoned stockades where the lucky settlers found shelter, so soon those that had made it to shelter began to consider their revenge.

The Rutherford Expedition

Within days the Council of Safety in Hillsboro had ordered Rutherford to call out his men and go after the "savages". Jacob and Andrew once again enlisted in his companies and set out to defend their homes. This time they marched west, up the Catawba toward Davidson's Fort, now Old Fort NC. Here gathered about 2,300 men. A wild mixture of militia, the North Carolina Regiments and Rangers from all over the state, all eager to once and for all put an end to the Cherokee threat. While the majority of these men were set to the work of acquiring supplies to feed the expedition, 600 men were chosen to go into the mountains and feel out the Indian positions.

This brave band of soldiers, with Jacob and Andrew among them we believe, marched up the rugged path through the Swannanoa Gap in early August 1776 and then down the valley of the Swannanoa River to the French Broad. Crossing that river at the War Ford three miles south of today's city of Asheville, near the Biltmore House, they camped for two weeks waiting for the remainder of their forces and supplies to arrive. The creek they camped on got its name from this time, it is today called Hominy Creek, recalling that the only food the expedition had for those two weeks was hominy, or pickled corn.

The area of the French Broad River was Indian Territory, but the Cherokee had never settled this region. The reason was that until the mid 1700s it was the abode of a large group of Shawnee. This group was always at odds with their Cherokee neighbors and had from early times been a thorn in their sides. Finally about 1735 the Cherokee had swooped down on the village of Swannano (Shawnee in Cherokee) and had burned the town, killed all the men and taken women and children into slavery. The only remnants left by the time of Rutherford's expedition was the hill north of the confluence of the Swannanoa and the French Broad that had been burned over and made the gravesite of the dead Shawnee. Here, after the Revolution, because the great virgin trees were gone and the hill was relatively open, the city of Asheville came into being. The area is now known as Pack Square.

With the arrival of supplies and additional troops Rutherford marched on up Hominy Creek in mid August and began to fight small engagements with the Cherokee. He past across the high ground that divides Hominy Creek from the waters of the Pigeon River and crossed that river at "the Forks", moving down river into a flat valley of open fields and huge virgin trees. Early settlers would later call the area "the Gardens". Here Rutherford again waited for a time as he sent scouts deeper into Cherokee country. Rutherford, through his caution was hoping to avoid what had happened to General Williamson's force of SC Militia at Seneca SC about the same time. Pressing a bit to hard, hungry for revenge Williamson had crossed into Cherokee country with only 300 men. Here he met an ambush of 1200 Cherokee led by the British agent Cameron. Williamson and his troops were barely able to extract themselves from this engagement and had been forced to fall back to the Rocky River (Anderson SC) and recuperate.

The area Rutherford's troops waited in on this stop would later become Clyde NC, and we can imagine Jacob and Andrew as they took in its wonders. They probably hunted the nearby hills of the Newfound Range and fished the crystal waters of the Pigeon and determined that when all this was over they would return to this spot. And they did, ten years later, to live and raise families.

Ready to march finally, Rutherford broke camp and began to feel his way steadily forward. Several "scouting parties" would range ahead, guided by friendly Indians. They might surprise a few enfeeble and old inhabitants as they broke from the woods upon a village, but in almost all cases the warning of their coming had preceded them and the inhabitants had taken to the hills. These scouts would summarily kill any inhabitants; no quarter was given for sex or age, as indeed none had been given by the Indian attacks on the Catawba.

It was no wonder that surprise was impossible, the army moved at a snails pace. Nineteen hundred and seventy foot soldiers, Eight hundred "light horse men" acting as scouts and guards, and fourteen hundred pack horses marched forward on the narrow path. Hours were spent clearing brush on the pathway so that a horse could pass. Here on the only track through the forest no thought had been put into their location by those who used it, if a man could step upon the earth it was all that was needed, for on foot was the Cherokee's only mode of transport. The column, thus constrained, stretched along for miles. One foot soldier was employed as driver over every four horses, and one pack master over each ten drivers. The column carried with them all the food and ammunition they would need for forty days.

Finding the Cherokee massed on Jonathan's Creek ahead of him in ambush, Rutherford marched up the west fork of the Pigeon and crossed behind the warriors to the area of today's Waynesville. The Indians, outflanked, fell back to the wilds of Soco Gap and sent Rutherford a challenge. Rutherford ignored the insult and marched instead to Balsam Gap and crossed into the Tuckasegee Valley, a broad valley full of settlements and close to the heartland of the Cherokee.

Here, as in all the valleys of the Middle Kingdom, the towns stretched along creeks as groups of log huts not much different than Jacob and Andrew's own homes back on the Catawba. The cabins were more crowded together, and the towns were surrounded by a log stockade, with logs sharpened at the top. The town generally had a log gate at each end and a central street. In larger towns a mound was erected at the center and a hut was placed atop it marking a center for the ruling elder or priest. The rest of the bottom land for thousands of acres around the town was planted in communal crops, mostly Maize or "Indian Corn". Many towns also had the cabins of "traders" set at the foot of the mounds. Here people of white descent lived, many born of white fathers or grandfathers and Native American mothers. They were the unofficial agents of the King, and dispensed firearms, ammunition, overpriced goods such as metal tools and blankets, alcohol and bad advice on how to deal with the invaders. Of course these folks were not to be found.

Having bypassed the war parties, and finding all the warriors gone, Rutherford had free reign over the towns of the Tuckasegee and Occonaluftee Rivers. The Cherokee women and children disappeared into the wilderness as the Patriot forces approached so the deserted towns were quick to go to the torch, and to smoke and ruin. More than that, the crops in the fields were set ablaze, assuring a difficult survival in the coming winter months. The Cherokee forces opposing Rutherford now attempted to draw him west toward the Nantahala Gorge, and after leaving a sizable contingent on the Cowee Mountains to threaten the Cherokee Middle Kingdom's capital at Naquasse (Franklin NC) he moved after them. A sharp engagement was finally fought in which the Cherokee were driven away, this engagement is almost mythical in its lack of documentation, but it appears to have been fought in the mile high heights around Wayah bald, one of the greatest mountains in the area, now on the Appalachian Trail.

By September both Rutherford and the Cherokee had learned that General Williamson was on the move north again, coming from SC with 2000 men of the SC forces. He had burned the towns of the Lower Kingdom and the capital at Keowee and was rapidly moving up the gaps into the mountains aiming at the central valley of the Middle Cherokee Kingdom, that of the Little Tennessee River. The Lower Kingdom was in dire straights as well. An Indian woman who had run to warn the settlers had thwarted a surprise attack by the Cherokee on the Watauga Settlement. They had set an ambush and routed the force of 700 Warriors and Loyalists at Long Island near today's Knoxville, TN. Now General Christian of Virginia, John Siever of what is today Tennessee and other militia captains, later to become famous in the Revolution at King's Mountain, had joined forces and were in movement down the Tennessee River against that oldest of Cherokee Kingdoms centered at Chote and Tanassee. (near Fort Loudon south of Knoxville, TN)

Rutherford reports that he took Naquasse and burned the town, then proceeded into the next valley at the heart of the Middle Kingdom, that of the Valley River. He left behind a large force of Cherokee hiding in the woods however. In late September Williamson finally arrived in Naquassee. (There is actually a dispute as to who got there first as Williamson's SC troops claim the town's fall). At any rate Williamson began to move forward to affect a rendezvous with Rutherford when he walked into another ambush at a place, called since, The Dark Hole. Here thousands of aroused Cherokee had set ambush in a deep chasm. As the SC troops marched in they had surrounded them and set a roadblock across the only road out. From concealment they opened a deadly fire on the Patriots. When all seemed lost (and surrender was not an option with Indians) the "regular" troops of the SC 3d Regiment stormed ahead in a bayonet charge and broke the Cherokee resistance. The Cherokee weren't used to that kind of foolish "last resort" it seems.

In the mean time Jacob and Andrew Shook had marched with Rutherford through the Nantahala Gorge and then down the Valley River, burning deserted towns and adjacent fields of maize ready for harvest as they went. Finally they reached the Hiawassee River at today's Murphy, NC, where they stopped. Rutherford was supposed to go on if possible and meet the Tennessee troops on the Hiawassee River in today's Tennessee. His men, mostly Militia had done enough they said, and winter was rapidly approaching in the rugged mountains. Short of food and ammunition, and having received no word from the Tennesseans Rutherford decided that he must turn around. Before he could depart Williamson and his troops arrived in Murphy and the SC Generals concurred with the decision, so in late September Rutherford began movement back along his own track, toward home, while Williamson turned south and moved through Northern Georgia on his way back to SC.

The weary Patriots marched out of the mountains and back to Davidson's Fort around the first part of October, 1776. On his march home Rutherford ordered that the route be "marked" and blazed so that future travelers could find their way, this trail was forever known afterwards as the Rutherford Trace and would provide a gateway to settlers who would find their way here in less than ten years. Although the SC troops had lost many more, Rutherford had only lost three of his North Carolina men. This was an incredible accomplishment to say the least, considering they had routed the Cherokee. As the frontiersmen returned down the Swannanoa Gap across the crest of the Blue Ridge toward home they believed they had broken the power of the Cherokee forever.

Home Again

We can easily imagine that when Andrew and Jacob returned to their home on the Lyle's Creek they felt their duty to the Revolution had been served. They had started with the threats from both east and west and had marched to dispose both, placing themselves in harm's way. Now they probably hoped that the world would just leave them alone.

History tells us that the fragile society of the Cherokee Middle Kingdom was broken, never to fully recover. Disease, starvation and frozen death stalked the civilian population of the Cherokee. Reduced to hiding in the most remote corners of the mountains in makeshift hovels and eating off the land the Nation's leadership prayed for peace. The military might of the Cherokee was still extant, however, and refused the pleas of the elders. Broken into small bands the Cherokee still put up many raids and attacks on those unfortunate enough to be caught unprepared. Before 1776 was out Rutherford sent another troop, commanded by Captain Moore who later settled on Hominy Creek, on a winter expedition to the Little Tennessee to Stecoah to destroy an area he hadn't reached in his attack.

By the summer of 1777, faced with horrible destruction leveled against their kingdoms, and the withdrawal of British support due to their misfortunes in other areas, the Cherokee sought peace. Not all agreed, and many young hot heads left their home villages to pursue the war in uncontrolled bands. At Due West SC on May 20, 1777, and again at Long Island of the Holston in today's Tennessee on June 20, 1777 treaties of peace were signed which gave away much of the Cherokee lands. To SC went most of the piedmont region, with assurances that the whites would leave the refugees of the Lower Kingdom alone in their new abodes in Northern Georgia. To Virginia went all Cherokee claims in Kentucky, and to North Carolina all of today's Tennessee west of the Tennessee River, north of the French Broad and east of the Pigeon River. The Middle Kingdom, who's ceded land was the valley of the French Broad and Pigeon Rivers in Western NC, claimed to have not been properly represented at that signing, so this part of the cession later came into dispute.

Fortunes of War
The end of 1779, and early 1780, brought disaster to American arms in the south. In the earliest part of that year the English had taken Savannah GA. In the fall Patriot forces were called from every corner of the Carolinas and Georgia to take the city back. The new allies of American Independence (and old foe of England) France, agreed to send a large number of French troops by sea to assist in the assault. This was an assault that failed miserably. The American forces limped back to Charleston and the British pursued. To save Charleston the American Army of the South, and militia from all over was called to Charleston. The absence of so many Patriot forces led to an increased boldness on the part of the local Loyalists.

On May 12, 1780, Charleston SC fell to the British and the entire Southern Army was forced to surrender. On June 10 of 1780 a Tory uprising overran the area not too far to the south of Jacob's home and a battle was fought between the Patriot militia and Tories at Ramsour's Mill. Casualties were high and the battle was indecisive. Then on July 25th American troops led by General Horatio Gates marched to the rescue, sent by General George Washington. The hero of Saratoga had arrived to save the day. Pushing the Tory forces back into South Carolina he pursued them to the fortified town of Camden SC where the Red Coats turned and stood for battle. Here the outnumbered British forces pounced upon the American troops on August 16, 1780, and the Patriots were routed with great loss. General Gates rode from the field alone shouting "every man for himself".

It's difficult to know the feelings of Jacob and his family during these times. Events had swirled around their homes and battles had been fought less than 30 miles away. Jacob tells us nothing about this, except that he wasn't there. Andrew was also quiet on the point as far as we know. In September things got even "hotter" in this backwoods neighborhood.
After the general defeat and the retreat of Gates resistance fell apart in Georgia and South Carolina. General Clarke of Georgia brought his men and their families north from Georgia seeking refuge across the mountains in the Watauga settlements. He was joined as he withdrew north along the foothills of the Blue Ridge by South Carolina troops and it was rumored they would come to Pleasant Gardens (today's Morganton, NC) to meet retreating North Carolina troops under General McDowell who were camped there. Pleasant Gardens is half way between Jacob's home and Fort Davidson, about 20 miles west.

Cornwallis, the British commander heard of this rumor and decided to launch a lightening raid into the backwoods to intercept them. He chose the dashing cavalry officer and English Gentleman, General Ferguson and ordered him to put together an army of selected Tory troops to go and capture General Clarke and his band and subdue the foothills. Ferguson with 1000 red-coated regulars was on the road by early September marching straight toward the Catawba Valley.

Furgeson's visit to the Catawba
In the event, Clarke, with 300 men and another 300 women and children, actually ascended the Blue Ridge and passed behind the mountains on his way to Watauga, and McDowell left Pleasant Gardens to follow. Ferguson pounded into the area within days and was terribly upset that he missed his quarry. He set about raiding Patriot homes and confiscating goods from wives whose husbands were away with the army. What Patriots he found were promptly jailed, and those whose sentiments were unknown he intimidated and abused if they refused to join him.

Once again it is hard to imagine how the Shooks and their German neighbors handled this rude occupation, however the occupation was to be short lived. Ferguson, feeling that he had cowed and defeated the Patriots now made a mistake that was to be his undoing. In his hands he found a prisoner to be from Watauga, and decided to release this man and send him home with a message for those settlers across the mountains. He proclaimed that they should desist in sheltering enemies of the King, and if they continued he threatened to cross the mountains, hang their leaders and lay waste to their country.

The people of Watuga were a hardy lot. They had braved the wilderness and the Indian threat to escape the politics of the east and were determined to avoid being embroiled in the Revolution. They had indeed fought the Cherokee on the side of the Patriots out of a sense of self-preservation, and certain individuals had crossed the mountains to fight the British due to their personal beliefs, but on the whole they wanted nothing to do with the war. But this threat was more than proud men could bear.

The call went out across the hidden coves and rough frontiersmen gathered at Sycamore Shoals (today's Elizabethton TN), hunting rifles in hand, and determined there to cross the mountains and visit this Ferguson, and determine the validity of his threats through armed contest. This rag tag band of frontiersmen in coonskin caps and leather breeches marched for Pleasant Gardens in late September.

Ferguson heard of their coming, and their numbers (some 2000 in all) and decided to fall back toward Charlotte where Cornwallis laid with the main British Army. Still he held such men in contempt, after all what could an undisciplined band of rough necks do to a fine regiment of British Regulars. Ferguson tarried on the way, and finally took up position on the top of a mountain that seemed an impregnable position to him. He could have easily made it to Cornwallis and the safety of the huge British army, but his pride allowed him to run no more. Here on the top of King's Mountain, only 20 miles from Charlotte, he and his Tory troops awaited the Over Mountain Men.

Hoping to overtake Ferguson before he could reach Cornwallis the Patriot troops left most of their force at Pleasant Gardens and only the 900 that were "well mounted" moved eastward at full gallop. When they arrived at King's Mountain they couldn't believe their luck. They dismounted and proceeded to surround the mountain, then made their way up the steep and wooded slopes toward the open field on the top. Here Ferguson had his red coats arrayed in typical European fashion awaiting the assault. The woodsmen crept to the edge of the field and there they took aim from behind trees and rocks. Their long rifles laid a deadly fire, from all directions, on the closely packed ranks of Tories. Again and again the brave red coats charged with the bayonet, but the riflemen would just fall back into the woods with each assault, only to return when the British were recalled. Quickly the contest became murder. Ferguson, seeing the inevitable, charged alone on horseback with sword drawn, straight into the Patriot ranks and was dropped with 7 deadly shots. Soon the remainder of the Tories found no option but to lay down their arms and surrender. 119 Tories lay dead, 123 were wounded and left on the field, and another 664 were made prisoner that afternoon of October 7, 1780. The Over Mountain Men lost 28 dead and 62 wounded.

In spite of this victory the rough little army knew that Cornwallis with his army would be marching hard to intercept them as soon as he heard what had happened. The men had met Ferguson and tested and dispatched his threat, and saw they no benefit in waiting around for Cornwallis. That afternoon they herded their prisoners westward, marching sixteen hours the day after the battle, and two days later arriving back in the upper Catwaba. Here the Patriots, intoxicated by victory and secure beyond the reach of Cornwallis took revenge on their enemies. They convened a "drum head" court marshal and condemned 32 of their prisoners to death for war crimes. One unfortunate Tory was convicted of a simple "spanking across the knee" of the young son of an absent patriot who showed some disrespect. Marched immediately to a local oak in the late evening darkness, the hangings began three at a time. After 9 men swung from the limbs, General John Sevier had seen enough and pled with those present that the remainder be pardoned. This they did, and the remaining 23 went free.

After this terrible spectacle the little army disbanded. The Watauga men went again across the mountains and McDowell with his North Carolinians along with the Georgia and South Carolina men went back southward. With this victory they believed a new day had begun. Word had spread of a new general, sent from Washington's army, a general that intended to take back the fortunes in the south.

The Professional Soldier's War
Even before King's Mountain General Washington sent General Greene south. This time he had sent a true warrior. Greene settled in at Hillsboro trying to piece back together the American force from the ruins left by Gates. One move he made that had great repercussions was the invitation to his old friend Morgan of Virginia to come from retirement and take command of one of his divisions.

British General Cornwallis was on the offensive. He had marched northward once more toward North Carolina with his impressive army against a disillusioned and broken force of Patriots. Even at this point, a low ebb in the Cause for American Independence, there were stout souls who resisted. Cornwallis' description of Charlotte (after encountering its small band of rebel defenders on the Court House square there) as "a nest of hornets" has remained to this day in the name of its sports teams. His initial excursions into the foothills had met with disaster at King's Mountain, and now with the new year he pressed again to the northwest. Morgan, sent by General Greene to reoccupy the upstate of piedmont SC after King's Mountain soon was in contact with superior British forces and began to fall back toward NC.

Forty miles to the south of the Shook home the British forces under Tarleton caught up with General Morgan as he withdrew. With his back against the Broad River he turned his forces and faced the British at a place called "the cow pens" (now Cowpens National Battlefield Park, SC). In a brilliant move Morgan, an elderly but experienced Indian fighter from Virginia, put his unsteady NC and SC Militia in the front row facing the British regulars across the face of a low hill. He asked only that they fired two aimed shots (focused at officers leading the British advance) before they fled in the face of the inevitable bayonet charge. He placed his experienced and disciplined Maryland and Delaware troops behind this line and over the slight hill, so they couldn't be seen by the advancing British. As he expected when the militia broke and ran, the normally well disciplined British troops, having lost most of their officers to the frontiersmen's two volleys, thought the battle won and rushed across the hill in disorder in pursuit of the militia. Here they encountered the solid line of Continental Regulars and were devastated and broken by their volleyed fire. Tarleton ran from the field with his bodyguard, his wing of the army was utterly destroyed. It was January 17, 1781.

Cornwallis was enraged and sent a much larger force in pursuit of Morgan, while Morgan retreated to the area 20 miles west of the Shook home. Here at Pleasant Gardens (now Morganton, named for the General) he encamped and waited for Greene to send him new orders. The new orders were grim. Greene determined that he would retreat back to Virginia hoping to collect reinforcements and Morgan was to raise the locals and attempt to delay the British from the crossing of the Catawba. Morgan had already crossed and moved north when the local Militia under General William Davidson attempted to stop Cornwallis. He was defeated, and killed in battle, at Cowan's Ford on the Catawba on February 1, 1781.

The British now swept forward to Salisbury and on to the Yadkin. Soon Cornwallis learned that Morgan and Greene had made a junction and he hurried north to give battle. Greene retreated northward still and crossed the Dan River into Virginia, carrying all the boats across with him. It was now February 15th. Cornwallis decided not to attempt to cross the icy river and fell back to establish winter quarters at Hillsboro, NC.

Shortly the British learned that Greene had been reinforced by Virginian troops, and a large contingent of Continentals from Washington's army. Greene had crossed the Dan and was moving toward Hillsboro. Cornwallis saw an opportunity to finally face Greene in open battle, so he arouse the forces he had at his command and marched toward the advancing Patriots. On March 15th, 1781 the two forces met at the hamlet of Guilford Courthouse, NC. This battle was planned an executed by General Greene and followed the tactics of General Morgan's strategy at Cowpens. Using his unsteady militia as bait he once again induced the British to an unorganized assault upon his best reservists. Although he outnumbered Cornwallis the strength and discipline of the British forces pressed Greene from the field.

Cornwallis lost in the one and a half hour engagement only 93 men. Greene lost only 78. But the British were at the end of their supplies, and after the battle Cornwallis responded that "with another victory such as that, we shall be lost..." The British General ordered the evacuation of Hillsboro and his troops marched south to Cross Creek and the protection of their old Tory allies, the Scots. Here they awaited sustenance sent up the Cape Fear River through Wilmington, NC. In April the British moved on to Wilmington.

More Troubles Close to Home
The situation on the frontier in the spring of 1781 was the result of a master plan conceived by Cornwallis. He decided that while he drove north to meet Greene, the backcountry, which had been such a thorn in his side in the campaigns of 1780, should have their attention diverted by attacks by his remaining Indian allies. So during the winter British agents were at work again in Cherokee lands inciting the young warriors and passing out guns and ammunition.

The settlers heard rumors of this, but it was obvious that the shortage of manpower due to the many actions of warfare in the local area would prevent any offensive moves into Indian country so a defensive tactic was taken. When the somewhat desperate Indian attacks began in the early months of 1781, in support of the British effort, forts were garrisoned as never before and large numbers of civilians moved under their protective guns. These forts were located to block the various pathways to and from the mountains and regular armed patrols connected them across the foothills.

To provide the manpower for this system a draft was put upon each county on the frontier, and those chosen by the local Captain of Militia were expected to turn out for the call. To be drafted you must be a juror in good standing, have taken no parole and be fit for service. Jacob fit these qualifications, so on May 10, 1781 he joined the command of Captain Smith at Davidson's Fort (today's Old Fort NC) on the upper Catawba as ordered.

An explanation of "juror" is in order. In the backcountry that was Rowan County in 1781 the Patriots ruled the local governments. If you were caught in arms against them or with the Indians you might well be hung. However if you evinced a failure to support the Revolution, and your only "crime" was refusal to take an oath of support for Independence then you would be simply declared a "non juror" by the court. Only jurors could serve the offices of the government or sit in judgment in the jury box, and only a juror was eligible for the draft.

After the "troubles" of 1780, the uprising of their Tory neighbors that resulted in the battle at Ramseur's Mill in June and then the invasion of Ferguson in September, local feelings had become more radically Patriot. Now those who had managed to "sit the war out" were pressed to make a renewed commitment to the cause. This was probably the reason for the drafting of Jacob. He had remained at home as the war swirled around him for four and a half years. Now he was off to once again walk in harm's way. For this job he was particularly suited however, as Jacob had extensive experience in Indian fighting gained during the Rutherford expedition in 1776.

It can't be known what Jacob's duties were at Davidson's Fort. As a private he may have participated in patrols that took him once again to the Pigeon River at the site of future Clyde. In those days it took a half a day to climb the Swannanoa Gap and to descend to the French Broad at the War Ford took another day. After crossing that river the trip up Hominy Creek took another day, ending with the crossing of the Pigeon at the "Fords", today's Canton, NC. Jacob's future home in Clyde was just a few miles away along the Rutherford Trace. In any event Jacob must have often talked to others around the dusty stockade who made the regular patrols. That summer another campaign was launched from today's Tennessee that penetrated up the French Broad, meeting the North Carolina patrols near modern Asheville. By this time, the continuing resistance, though substantial, was obviously the work of renegade bands. Many of these led by Tory refugees. The day of the massed invasion was over, from now on the militia spent their time with "lightning" raids hoping to capture or kill the Tory leaders and their Indian allies.

A stratagem had long been adopted for dealing with these occasional incursions, and now in 1781 it was expanded. A series of "block houses" now extended across the frontier, and from each a patrol rode or walked to meet the patrol from the nearest forts in the chain, sometimes twice each day. On high places lookouts were posted to alert the post of any tell-tale smoke on the horizon which could be a neighboring farm under attack. With any incursion a "posse" was quickly put together which would track and often engage the perpetrators deep in Indian country across the Blue Ridge. Davidson's Fort was a principle establishment in this chain, which also included as "major" garrisons the Blockhouse at Tryon, on the SC line to the south, the fort at Wilkesboro below Deep Gap in Rowan County, NC and the fort on the New River across Fancy Gap, both to the north, the latter in Virginia. Many minor "stations" existed in between these points.

Back in the "World" while he was gone ...
Jacob returned home at the end of his enlistment in August 1781, papers of discharge in hand properly signed bya Captain Smith. Just a few days after Jacob returned home an event destined to mold the life of Jacob Shook and all his further descendants down to this day was taking place in New York.
On August 19th the veteran Continental Army commanded by George Washington, an 2,500 man army, tiny by modern standards, but the norm for this war, slipped quietly out of their trenches in New York. They left a "skeleton" force behind to cover New York City and began marching hard toward the south. Two days later the French forces in New Jersey, 4,000 more men under General Rochambeau, slipped away as well. Every road southward was choked with these 6,500 hardened men, marching hard, night and day, glad to be away from the stalemate of siege warfare that had settled in for the last year and a half around New York City.

Covered with the dust of the late summer roads, their color was not the blue of Continentals or white uniforms of the French; it was all dusty beige. Across New Jersey and Pennsylvania, Maryland and the Potomac River on into Virginia they marched. Every byway and country lane that ran in a generally southward direction was utilized. They marched to meet Cornwallis and save Virginia, and it was a Virginia in trouble.
General Cornwallis, after his "victory" over Greene at Guilford Courthouse (now ironically Greensboro, NC) had moved south and west to Wilmington NC to re-supply his army. There he had met British ships and re-armed his troops and received new replacements. Looking for new moves he might make he considered his options. South Carolina seemed subdued and quite now, North Carolina, while not occupied, was without the protective cover of the dispersed army of General Greene so posed little threat. Only in Virginia were the "Rebels" still defiant, it seemed, so he made a fateful decision. He would march north to Virginia. He would hope to subdue that colony and then continue northward all the way to New York City. There with the totally subdued south and middle colonies behind him, he would fall on Washington and his French allies from behind, and he and General Gage would have this thing "finished up".

Virginia had made a great contribution to the American armies, both north and south. The result was a countryside that could not call up a significant Patriot Militia, as so many were off at the major seats of action. This made it easy for Cornwallis to sweep away the resistance he met. As he took the Virginia capital at Williamsburg and pressed deeper into Virginia that June he expected any time to meet Greene and have a final "show down" but Greene didn't appear. By July he had pressed to the "new" capital of Virginia, right at the foothills of the Blue Ridge at Charlottesville, where he almost captured the notorious Thomas Jefferson.
Where was Greene? A questioned that must have indeed bothered Cornwallis on a daily basis. Green had other things on his mind however. He had hoped after Guilford Courthouse back in March that Cornwallis would attempt to pursue him across the Dan into Virginia. He had hoped to once again draw on the people of the frontier, and of Watauga to pounce on him there in the foothills around Lynchburg. Cornwallis refused the bait however and fell back to Wilmington. Of Greene's tired troops, many militia and regulars were from the Carolinas and Georgia. They clamored for a return to their homes, and were in dire distress as to what might be occurring to their loved ones they had left in Tory hands. Many also insisted they get home to do the spring plowing and planting, a necessity if these families were to survive. Greene, with Washington's consent, had determined he would leave Cornwallis to the northern army, while he would sweep back into the virtually undefended Carolinas.

Cornwallis, in Wilmington making his assessment, had missed the importance of Greene's return south. Greene had in fact mostly dispersed the army, telling each man to return southward as individuals, each to their home. He then ordered them to gather once again after the Spring near Charlotte, NC and various other points, bringing all the local Patriots they could induce to join his offensive with them. Stories brought to General Cornwallis about this exodus of individual men returning home confirmed for the General that Greene's army was a broken organization, hobbled by desertion. He wasn't aware that Greene still had a significant force that now moved south, several regiments of Maryland and Virgina Continentals and the Calvary of Henry Lee, in all about 900 men. Even had he known, he would have felt confident that Lord Rawdon, with new re-enforcements from Ireland being sent to him, could hold Greene at bay. Still he was sure Greene would follow him northward. He was no longer concerned with Greene.

When Jacob Shook returned home from Davidson's Fort, discharge in hand, he could not have known about such things as Washington's recent departure from New York. He did know I'm sure about Greene and his plans, those many neighbors who had been with Greene had been home that spring. He would have known about Greene's first success in the south, forcing the evacuation of Camden on the very day that Jacob had entered the service in May. He would have heard that Clarke had retuned to Georgia, passing through the area of his home on his way from Watauga during the Spring, that he had roused his people in his home state to revolt and placed the British outpost at Ausgusta, GA under siege. A siege that had ended on June 5 with the fall of Augusta (the same day that Cornwallis took Williamsburg). A massed excodus of Tories from the area back to Savannah on the coast ensued. He would have heard about the siege of another British post at Ninety Six in SC, and how General Greene narrowly failed to take the post when British re-enforcements arrived from Charleston on June 21. This he would know was a defeat to the British none the less, because the British decided Ninety Six was "too far forward" and they burned their own town and evacuated back to Orangeburg SC within weeks. Another long column of Tory refugees flooded back toward the coast. The Catawba Valley was also free of many of the Tory instigators and the "King's" families, as they had also fled to Wilmington and the coast with the departure of Cornwallis.

The beginning of the end for the British in the South, Eutaw Springs
Even now General Cornwallis saw these military events as temporary setbacks. In fact a situation developed in which the British controlled the cities but the Patriots controlled the countryside, much as in Vietnam many years later. This led the British to underestimate the strength and resilience of their enemies. Now with so many Loyalist families coming "in" to Charleston, Savannah and Wilmington the backwoods were becoming even more staunchly Patriot in leanings. Patriot Partisans such as Generals Pickens, Sumter and Francis Marion had put together some experienced and well oiled "fighting machines" in the months of siege and skirmish since Spring, and now they had each finished their "local" tasks and in September they all agreed to join Greene in a major offensive against the heart of the British enclave at Charleston.

The "showdown" ended up being at a plantation called Eutaw Springs about 30 miles from Charleston, SC. On September 8 Greene and Lord Rawdon came to grips with each other in a traditional battle of the European type at that place. Here the 2,300 men of Greene's army were arrayed in a memorable fashion. On the right was stationed "Light Horse Harry" Lee and his Virginia Regiment of Calvary, father of Robert E Lee of Civil War fame. His troopers were adorned in green uniforms with brass helmets, each crowned by an ostrich plume. On the left was William Washington, cousin of George, standing in stirrups with his "white coated" regiment, accompanied by Francis Marion, the Swamp Fox and his partisan band from the swamps of South Carolina. To the rear in reserve was old General Sumter, the "Fighting Gamecock" with his regiment of partisan cavalry. In the center lay the infantry of Greene's army. In the front rank the North Carolinian Militia commanded by John Ashe provided the point, on both sides were the South Carolinians, to the left commanded by General Pickens, the South Carolinian partisan and Indian fighter and the right to be commanded that day by Wade Hampton, a tidewater aristocrat and another father of a famous Civil War general. Behind them lay arrayed Greene's main force of Continentals, a regiment of Delaware Troops, two of Virginians and two of the Maryland Line. These veterans had been the core of his army since he had first come south in 1780. In addition he also had the newly re-born Second Regiment of the North Carolina Line in his van and stationed in this rank.

Lord Rawdon opposed this impressive force with an equal force of 2,300 men. He had under his command the Loyalist regulars in three regiments, two from New York and one from New Jersey, he had a large force of Charleston Loyaist Militia, two regiments, the 63d and 64th of the Regular British Army, two companies of German Hessian riflemen and three Irish Regiments brought directly from that country to fight for the British just four months previously. Rowden had little reguard for the fighting prowess of the Militia that made up most of his opponents' army, so he felt no apprehension about the coming battle.
As usual for him, Greene had positioned his usually unsteady Militia in front of his dependable regulars. This time however, for the first time, when the armies met at the point of contact the Militia fired a well aimed volley and charged with bayonets! The British reeled, they had never seen this behavior from the Militia. For the next hour and a half the battle raged as the British fell back upon their camp. Soon the left flank of the British had broken, and the Patriots took the camp. Now the Militia, true to form, stopped pursuit and began to take a look at the plunder left in the British camp. Meanwhile the British stabilized their new line, centered on a brick farm house they had hastily turned into a fortress. Here the Continentals and Calvary focused repeated assaults, but failed to break the line. After several hours of fruitless assault the Brtish made a counterattack and Greene determined his best bet was to withdraw from the field.
Within hours of his "victory" Rawdon withdrew all the way back into Charleston. Shaken by the ferocity and stability of the Militia, the British would never venture out of the confines of Charleston by land again. Once again in spite of a tactical loss the fruits of victory were Greene's. A situation that fully justified his tounge in cheek reputation after the Revolution as the "losenest General who ever won a war!". This was the final engagement of the war in the Carolinas or Georgia. The focus of the fianl act of the war now shifted to Virginia.

The World Turned Upside Down
Cornwallis "had it his way" in Virginia all summer. He had almost captured Thomas Jefferson, he held the Capital of Virginia at Williamsburg and other than the pesky attacks made hit and run style by Lafayette and "Mad" Anthony Wayne and their re-enforced Virginia Rangers he felt he had nothing to fear. In spite of the setbacks being reported in the Carolinas he still believed he had this war won.

Then on the 31st of August, just a few weeks after Jacob returned home, Cornwallis received bad news. Not only had Washington snuck away from New York with the bulk of the American army, and was heading south by forced march, but a huge French fleet of 28 warships had left Haiti August 5th and was supposed to be heading toward the Chesapeake Bay. Cornwallis immediately recalled his far flung forces and ordered them back to new fortifications he began building at the little town of Yorktown on the York River. There he could await re-enforcements or evacuation by ship to New York at his commander's discretion. His commander, Sir Henry Clinton was not slow to move. He quickly prepared a similar fleet of British warships and loaded on board 6,000 British troops, sending them south from New York harbor that very day.

The French fleet had arrived at Chesapeak on the next day, and had landed 4,000 men of the French Regular Army that afternoon at Norfolk, VA. These men now marched to join with Washington, Rochambeau and Lafayette at Yorktown. With the Virginaian Militia that had answered the call, smelling victory, the Americans had concentrated an unheard of force of 16,000 men at Williamsburg facing Cormwallis with 7,000 at Yorktown. If the British couldn't land the re-enforcements now in route, the contest would be a short one.

Then the fateful day of September 5th, 1781 the two big fleets collided in the Battle of the Capes at the entrance to Chesapeake Bay. The fleets of the British and French, the most powerful and modern fleets in the world, meeting in almost equal numbers, British with 19 ships of the line and the French 24, fought the singularly most important naval battle of the Revolutionary War. It is ironic that in this battle not one American Patriot participated, yet it was the battle that eventually won the war, and with it the independence of the United States, for on that day the British ships were turned back, and Cornwallis was left deserted by his Government in his enclave at Yorktown.

The combined French and American forces began the siege of Cornwallis' position on September 28th. In the coming weeks the battle continued, with the British enclave always shrinking after each engagement. Finally Cornwallis, all hope gone of re-enforcements from New York, attempted to escape across the river under cover of darkness on October 16th. That night a strong storm blew in and scattered the small boats he had collected for this movement, and after that it was too late for escape.

Around 10 am on the morning of the 17th French and American officers preparing for an assault on the British line saw a single drummer standing in his red uniform beating a parley from the British works. Soon the firing stopped all along the line. A British officer soon appeared in front of the work waving a white handkerchief, and he was blindfolded and conducted to general Washington's tent. Here he delivered a letter from Cornwallis asking for a twenty four hour truce to negotiate a surrender.

This was granted, and in the end the terms were extremely generous. The soldiers would be allowed to leave Virginia for England or New York on British transports if they would be willing to sign paroles, and all officers were even allowed to keep side arms and personal possessions. Those refusing parole would become prisoners of war, the Navy personnel to be held by the French and the Army by the Americans.
The British troops marched out of Yorktown October 19th, 1781, at a ceremony of surrender, marching between ranks of blue coated and buckskinned ranks of Americans and white uniformed soldiers of the French. As they marched and stacked their arms the British bands played the song "The World Turned Upside Down".

The end of the war, and a new nation is born
There would be other engagements as the war wound down, but British resolve had evaporated, as well as British support from the home islands. As part of a treaty intended to end the world wide conflict that had grown between France and Great Britain, the British signed the Treaty of Paris in 1783. With this treaty the British agreed to evacuate the remaining areas of the thirteen colonies before year's end, and all the territories held east of the Mississippi River, with the exception of Florida, would be transferred to the realm of the fledgling United States.

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