Since Epsey was one of the women in the group, Ethan received approval from Captain Few and volunteered to accompany Clarke. It was the first time he had served directly under the colonel, and he was somewhat ill at ease. His best approach was to stay as aloof as possible from the commander, which was not difficult as the long file of women, children, and militiamen crossed the Savannah and moved through western South Carolina. There were a limited number of horses, almost all of which were used to carry supplies, with only a few of the weaker women and children mounted. The militiamen who were leading and following the bedraggled crowd remained on horseback, attempting to minimize straggling and prepared to fight off any attack. Since the movement was at a walking pace, the horses were not overtaxed, and their forage from grazing soon became superior to the dwindling supply of food for humans.

Within a few days, Brown’s ubiquitous scouts reported that the group had moved across the river, apparently abandoning their property in Georgia, and he was obsessed with their capture or destruction. However, his assigned duty was to protect Augusta and deal with the territories to the west and south, and his raiders were more interested in collecting spoils from the abandoned settlements than in confronting Clarke and his experienced fighters. He sent a message to Lord Cornwallis, urging him to have his forces in western Carolina find and destroy what Brown described as Elijah Clarke and his formidable militia. The general immediately assigned this task to Major Patrick Ferguson.

Although hunted by British troops and Indian scouts, the patriots and their families evaded them by using backwoods trails leading northward into the mountainous region, where they soon encountered an unseasonable winter storm. The group was running out of food with the high mountain range still to be traversed, and Clarke ordered that all the remaining corn was to be given to the children and that adults would have to depend on roots, acorns, and nuts gathered from the forest. As they entered the mountainous area and were wading through several inches of snow, they met a small group of men under Captain Edward Hampton, who offered some of their food and informed Clarke about a Carolina force that was being assembled to attack Ferguson.