That same day, October 7, the rebel colonels were confused about which way to go, and their exhausted men were getting restless, with some of them threatening to return home to care for their families. At Cowpens, they found a wealthy Tory, threatened his life, and finally compromised with him by slaughtering his cattle and harvesting an entire field of corn, which the men quickly consumed. Fortunately, as the force proceeded eastward toward Charlotte, they intercepted two other Tories, who reported that they had been with Ferguson and that he was on the way to join Cornwallis and his main force.

Shelby gave the captured men a simple choice: either immediate execution or truthful information about Ferguson’s whereabouts. Their lives were spared when they said, “He’s only a few miles from here, probably having arrived at King’s Mountain, where he plans to camp.”

The Tories, who seemed to have mixed feelings about Ferguson as a commanding officer, also said that the major wanted to stand out and was easy to identify. He liked to wear a multicolored hunting shirt over his tunic, and to give orders by blowing a silver whistle that he wore on a thong around his neck. They also revealed that there were about 1,100 men in Ferguson’s force and that he had announced to them, “I will be on King’s Mountain. I will be king of the mountain, and God Almighty cannot drive me from it.”

They added with some relish that he also had more than one beautiful mistress traveling with him. The colonels also learned that Ferguson was really a Scotsman and that he was the only British citizen on the mountain. Known as the American Volunteers, all the troops were colonists who had remained loyal to the crown and were eager to fight against their neighbors and kinsmen whom they considered to be traitors. This was going to be a battle of brothers against brothers.