“I am extremely glad to hear of your, being so near at hand. It raises the spirits of the people here, who were greatly disgusted by the misfortune of Gen. Gates and the near approach of the enemy. Lord Cornwallis commands, and Lord Rawdon is there. Their force is perhaps almost 1,000, nearly all British. They are thrashing and flowering wheat and driving in cattle, sheep, hogs, etc. They have no artillery. Col. Brannon and his South Carolina refuges has routed a party of tories in Rutherford County, killed and wounded 2 and taken 24. The people here long for some support.”