In  February,  1776,  Joseph  McDowell,  Jr.,  young  as  he
was,  went  in  his  brother's  regiment — some  accounts  state
as  Major — on  the  expedition  against  the  Scotch  Tories.  In
July,  the  Cherokees  burst  upon  the  Catawba  settlements,
killing  thirty-seven  persons  on  the  tenth  and  eleventh  of
that  month,  and  beleaguering  a  fort,  in  which  were  Colonel
and  Major  McDowell,  with  nine  other  men,  and  a  hundred
and  twenty  women  and  children ;  the  Indians  were  driven
off.  Major  McDowell  served,  in  the  ensuing  fall,  in
his  brother's  regiment,  on  Rutherford's  campaign  against
the  Cherokees;  in  1779,  on  the  Stono  expedition;  early  in
1780,  after  the  Tories,  sharing  in  the  victory  at  Ramsour's
Mill — "the  same  Joseph  McDowell,"  says  the  old  pen-
sioner, Joseph  Dobson,  "  who  was  afterwards  General,"
He  was  next  in  service  at  Earle's  Ford  on  Pacolet,  at  Mus-
grove's  Mill,  King's  Mountain  and  Cowpens.  He  served
a  tour,  in  the  spring  of  1781,  against  Cornwallis.  In
August,  1781,  and  again  in  March,  1782,  Major  McDowell
led  expeditions,  chastising  the  Cherokees  ;  and  in  the  fall
of  1782,  he  commanded  the  Burke  regiment  on  a  campaign
against  the  same  troublesome  tribe,  under  the  leadership
of  his  brother.  General  McDowell.
