Here,  then,  were  the  conscientious  class  of  Loyalists ;
an  ignorant  class  ;  an  indifferent  class  ;  a  cowardly  class  ;
a  covetous,  money-making  class  ;  and  a  disappointed,  ro-
guish, fevengeful  class.  It  must  not  be  supposed  that  these
characteristics  were  never  combined.  Several  of  them  had
a  natural  affinitj^  for  each  other,  and  were  almost  invariably
found  united  in  the  same  person.  The  non-combatants,  the
cowards,  and  the  indifferent  were  not  found  among  those
arrayed  on  King's  Mountain  ;  but  Ferguson's  force,  aside
from  the  young  men  who  had  enlisted  under  his  standard,
and  a  few  worthy  but  misguided  people,  was  largely  made
up  of  the  worst  characters  which  war  evolves  from  the  dregs
of  mankind.*

In  the  confronting  ranks  was  a  very  different  class  of
men.  Those  from  the  Holston,  under  Campbell,  were  a
peculiar  people — somewhat  of  the  character  of  Cromwell's
soldiery.  They  were,  almost  to  a  man,  Presbyterians.  In
their  homes,  in  the  Holston  Valley,  they  were  settled  in
pretty  compact  congregations  ;  quite  tenacious  of  their  re-
ligious and  civil  liberties,  as  handed  down  from  father  to
son  from  their  Scotch-Irish  ancestors.  Their  preacher,
Rev.  Charles  Cummins,  was  well  fitted  for  the  times ;  a
man  of  piety  and  sterling  patriotism,  who  constantly  exerted
himself  to  encourage  his  people  to  make  every  needed  sac-
rifice, and  put  forth  every  possible  exertion  in  defense  of  the
liberties  of  their  country.  They  were  a  remarkable  body
of  men,  both  physically  and  mentally.  Inured  to  frontier
life,  raised  mostly  in  Augusta  and  Rockbridge  Counties,
Virginia,  a  frontier  region  in  the  French  and  Indian  war,  they
early  setdedon  the  Holston,  and  were  accustomed  from  their
childhood  to  border  life  and  hardships  ;  ever  ready  at  the  tap

'■'  Saye's  Memoir  of  Mcjunkin.
