98  KING'S  MOUNTAIN

tain  Jolin  Clarke,  the  youthful  son  of  the  Colonel,  yet  in  his
teens,  and  several  others,  were  also  wounded  in  the  same
manner.  This  close  hand-to-hand  sabre  fighting,  which
McCall  describes,  contradicts  his  previous  description  of  the
action  as  if  it  were  simply  a  "  distant  firing  "  upon  each
other.  It  shows,  too,  that  the  back-woods  riflemen  did  not
take  to  their  heels  on  the  approach  of  the  dragoons  with
their  glittering  broad-swords.
It  is  not  easy  to  determine  the  actual  strength  of  the
parties  engaged  in  this  spirited  contest,  nor  their  respective
losses.  McCall  does  not  specify  how  many  on  either  side
took  part  in  the  conflict — only  that  the  Americans  were  out-
numbered ;  erroneously  naming  Innes  as  the  British  com-
mander ;  and  states  that  the  enemy  pursued  Colonel  Clarke
to  Woffbrd's  Iron  Works,  where  he  had  chosen  a  strong
position  from  which  the  British  endeavored  to  draw
him,  and  that  a  distant  firing  continued  during  the  after-
noon, until  near  night ;  that  the  Americans  lost  four  killed
and  five  or  six  wounded,  while  the  enemjr  lost  five  killed
and  eleven  wounded.  Mills  mentions  in  one  place  in  his
work,  that  Clarke's  force  was  one  hundred  and  sixty-eight,
in  another,  one  hundred  and  ninety-eight,  evidently  ignorant
of  the  presence  of  Colonels  Shelby  and  Graham,  witli  their
followers  ;  that  Ferguson  and  Dunlap  combined,  numbered
between  four  and  six  hundred,  of  which  Dunlap's  advance
consisted  of  sixty  dragoons  and  one  hundred  and«  fifty
mounted  volunteer  riflemen  ;  that  the  Americans  had  four
killed  and  twenty-three  wounded,  all  by  the  broad-sword ;
while  Dunlap  lost  twenty-eight  of  his  dragoons,  and  six  or
seven  of  his  Tory  volunteers  killed,  and  several  wounded.
