Within two miles of King's Mountain they captured Ferguson's messenger with the letter that told of his desperate situation.

They asked this man how they should know Ferguson.

He told them that Ferguson was in full uniform but wore a checkered shirt or dust cloak over it.

This was not the only messenger of Ferguson's who failed to carry through.

The men he had sent out previously had been followed and, to escape capture or death, they had been obliged to lie in hiding, so that they did not reach Cornwallis until the day of the battle.
At three o'clock on the afternoon of the 7th of October, the overmountain men were in the forest at the base of the hill.