BATTLE  OF  KING'S  MOUNT  AN.— BY  GEN.  JOSEPH  GRAHAM.  *


After  the  defeat  of  Gen.  Gates  and  the  army  under  his  command,  on
the  l6th  of  August,  1780,  and  the  defeat  of  Gen.  Sumter,  two  days  after-
wards, near  Rocky  Mount,  by  Col.  Tarleton,  the  South  was  almost  entirely
abandoned  to  the  eneiTiy.  Most  of  the  troops,  both  officers  and  men,
who  had  escaped  from  Gates'  defeat,  passed  through  Charlotte,  N.  C,
where  most  of  the  militia  of  Mecklenburg  County,  were  assembled  in
consequence  of  the  alarm.  The  regular  troops  chiefly  passed  on  to
Hillsboro',  where  Gen.  Gates  finally  established  his  head-quarters.
William  L.  Davidson,  who  had  served  as  Lieutenant-Colonel  of  the
regulars  in  the  Northern  army,  was  appointed  Brigadier-General  of  the
militia  in  the  Salisbury  District,  in  the  place  of  Gen.  Rutherford,  who
was  taken  prisoner  at  Gates'  defeat.  He  formed  a  brigade,  and
encamped  on  McAlpin's  creek,  about  eight  miles  below  Charlotte,  and
in  the  course  of  two  or  three  weeks  was  reinforced  by  Gen.  Sumner,  a
Continental  officer,  but  having  no  regulars  to  command,  he  took  com-
mand of  the  militia  from  the  counties  of  Guilford,  Caswell,  Orange,  &c.
After  Gates'  defeat,  the  attention  of  Lord  Cornwallis  was  chiefly
occupied  with  burying  the  dead,  taking  care  of  the  wounded,  and  for-
warding, under  suitable  guards,  the  great  number  of  prisoners  he  had
taken,  to  the  city  of  Charleston,  and  regulating  the  civil  government  he
was  establishing  in  South  Carolina,  and  examining  the  state  of  the  posts
occupied  by  his  troops  on  the  Congaree,  Ninety  Six  and  Augusta.  By  the
1st  of  September,  he  had  his  arrangements  made,  and  detached  Col.
