lijah Williamson did. DESCENDANTS OF REvOLUTIONARY HEROES. Representatives of several Revolutionary soldiers reside in these mountains, among whom are the Alexanders, Davidsons, Fosters, McDowells, Coffeys, Bryans, Penlands, Wisemans, Miens, Welehes, and scores of others, who fought in North Carolina. Others are descendants of Nathan Horton, who was a member of the guard at the execution of Major Andre, when he carried a shot-gun loaded with one ball and three buckshot. J. B. Horton, a direct descendant, has the gun now. J. C. Horton, who lives on the South Fork of the New River, near Boone, has a grandfather's clock which his ancestor, Nathan Horton, brought with him from New Jersey over one hundred years ago. The late Superior Co'rrt Judge, L. L. Greene of Boone, and the Greenes of Watauga generally, trace their descent directly from General Nathanael Greene, who conducted the most masterly retreat of the Revolutionary War, when he slowly ret, ired before Cornwallis from Camden to Yorktown, and won the applause of even the British.[7] THE OLD FIELD. Where Gap creek empties into the South Fork of New River is a rich meadow on which, according to tradition, there has never been any trees. It has been called the "old field" time out of mind. it was here that Col. Cleveland was captured by a notorious Tory named Riddle and his followers during the Revolutionary War.[8] The tree under which it is said he was seated when surprised and captured is still standing in the yard of the old Luther Perkins home,[9] now occupied by a son of Nathan Waugh. The tree is said to be 180 years old. It is three feet in diameter six feet from the ground, and still bears fruit. It is said that Mrs. Perkins sent her daughter to notify Ben Cleveland and Joseph Calloway of Cleveland's capture and that they followed him by means of twigs dropped in the river as he was led up stream, having joined the party of Captain Cleveland, who had gone in pursuit. Greer lived four miles above Old Field and Calloway two miles below. It is said that Greer shot one of the captors at Riddle's knob, to which point Cleveland had been taken, and that the rest fled, Cleveland himself dropping behind the log on which he had been seated while slowly writing passes for his captors. It is also claimed that Ben Greer fired the shot which killed Col. Ferguson at Kings Mountain. [10] Roosevelt says Ferguson was pierced by half a dozen bullets. (Vol. iii, 170). THE WOLF'S DEN. Riddle's knob is ten miles north of Boone, and is even yet a "wild and secluded spot, being very near the noted Elk Knob, the place where this noted Tory had his headquarters. It is known as the "Wolf's Den," and is the place where the early settlers caught many young wolves." About 1857 Micajah Tugman found Riddle's knife in the crevices of the Wolf's Den. It was of peculiar design, the "jaws" being six inches long, and the handle was curved.[11] BENJAMIN CLEVELAND. This brave man was born in Virginia May 26, 1738. When thirty-one years of age he came to North Carolina to live, settling in Wilkes county. In 1776 he became a Whig. He was himself somewhat cruel, as it is related of him that "some time after this (his capture at Old Field) this same Riddle and his son, and another was taken, and brought before Cleveland, and he hung all three of them near the Mulberry Meeting House, now Wilkesborough".[12] Cleveland weighed over three hundred pounds, and his men called him "Old Roundabout," and themselves "Cleveland's Bull Dogs." The Tories, however, called them "Cleveland's Devils." He was a captain in Rutherford's expedition across the mountains to punish the Cherokees in 1776, for which service he was made a colonel, and as such rendered great service in suppressing Tory bands on the frontier. He raised a regiment of four hundred men in Surry and Wilkes counties and with them took part in Kings Mountain fight. Before he died he weighed over 450 pounds, but was cheerful and witty to the end, which came in October, 1806.[13] DR. DRAPER's ACCOUNT. In his "Kings Mountain and Its Heroes,"' Dr. Draper tells us (Ch. 19, p.437, et seq.) that the Old Fields belonged to Colonel Cleveland, and served, in peaceful times, as a grazing region for his stock, and there his tenant, Jesse Duncan, resided. On Saturday, April 14, 1881, accompanied only by a negro servant, Cleveland rode from his "Round About" plantation on the Yadkin to the Old Fields, where he spent the night. Captain William Riddle, a son of Col. James Riddle of Surry county, both of whom were Royalists, was at that time approaching Old Field from Virginia, with Captain Ross, a Whig captive, and his servant, enroute to Ninety Six, in South Carolina. Captain Riddle's party of six or eight men, reached the home of Benjamin Cutbirth, some four miles above Old Field on the afternoon of the day that Cleveland arrived at Jesse Duncan's, and abused Cutbirth, who was a Whig and suffering from wounds he had but recently sustained in the American cause. Riddle, however, soon left Cutbirth's and went on to the upper end of Old Fields, where Joseph and Timothy Perkins resided, about one mile above Duncan's. Both these men were absent in Tory service at the time; but Riddle learned from their women that Cleveland was at Duncan's "with only his servant, Duncan and one or two of the Calloway family." Riddle, however, was afraid to attack Cleveland openly, and determined to lure him into an ambush the next morning. Accordingly, that night, he had Cleveland's horses secretly taken from Duncan's to a laurel thicket "just above the Perkins house," where they were tried and left. But, it so happened, that on that very Saturday, Richard Calloway and his brother-in-law, John Shirley, went down from the neighboring residence of Thomas Calloway, to see Col. Cleveland, where they remained over night. On the following (Sunday) morning, discovering that his horses were missing, Cleveland and Duncan, each with a pistol, and Calloway and Shirley, unarmed, went in pursuit, following the tracks of the stolen horses, just as Riddle had planned. "Reaching the Perkins place, one of the Perkins women knowing of the ambuscade, secretly desired to save the Colonel from his impending fate, and detained him as long as she could, while his three companions went on, Cleveland following some little distance behind." She also followed, retarding Cleveland by enquiries, until his companions had crossed the fence that adjoined the thicket, where they were fired upon by Riddle's men from their places of concealment. Calloway's thigh was broken by the shot of Zachariah Wells, but Duncan and Shirley escaped. Cleveland "dodged into the house with several Tories at his heels." There he surrendered on condition that they would spare his life; but when Wells arrived he swore that he would kill Cleveland then and there, and would have done so had not the latter "seized Abigal Walters and kept her between him and his would-be assassin. Riddle, however, soon came upon the scene and ordered Wells to desist; after which, "the whole party with their prisoner and his servant were speedily mounted and hurried up New river," traveling "mostly in its bed to avoid being tracked, in case of pursuit." Two boys, of fourteen and fifteen, "Daniel Cutbirth and a youth named Walters," had resolved to waylay Riddle on his return to Benjamin Cutbirth's, and rescue whatever prisoners he might have with him; but they were deterred from their purpose by the size and noise of Riddle's party as they passed their place of concealment that Sunday morning. Riddle's party got dinner at Benjamin Cutbirth's where one of Cutbirth's daughters was abused and kicked by Riddle because of her reluctance in serving Riddle's party. After dinner Riddle's party proceeded up the bed of New river to the mouth of Elk creek, where the new and promising town of Todd now flourishes at the terminus of a new railroad now building from Konarok, Va., Cleveland meanwhile breaking off overhanging twigs and dropping them in the stream as a guide to his friends who, he knew, would soon follow in pursuit. "From the head of the south fork of Elk, they ascended up the mountains in what has since been known as Riddle's Knob, in what is now Watauga county, and some fourteen miles from the place of Cleveland's captivity," where they camped for the night. Meantime, early that Sabbath morning, Joseph Calloway and his brother-in-law, Berry Toney, had called at Duncan's, and hearing firing in the direction of Perkins's home, hastened there; but, meeting Duncan and Shirley in rapid flight, they learned from them that Richard Calloway had been left behind for dead and that Cleveland was either dead or captured. Duncan, Shirley and Toney then went to notify the people of the scattered settlements to meet that afternoon at the Old Fields, while Joseph Calloway rode to Captain Robert Cleveland's place on Lewis Fork of the Yadkin river, a dozen miles distant. His brother, William Calloway, started forthwith up New river and soon came across Benjamin Greer and Samuel McQueen, who readily joined them, and together they followed Riddle's trail till night overtook them ten miles above the Old Fields, where Calloway and McQueen remained, while Greer returned to pilot whatever men might have gathered to engage in the pursuit of the Tories. Greer soon met Robert Cleveland and twenty others at the Old Fields, and all started at once, reaching Calloway and McQueen before day Monday morning. John Baker joined Calloway and McQueen to lead the advance as spies or advance guards; and, soon after sunrise, the nine men who were in advance of the others fired upon Riddle's party, while Cleveland tumbled behind the log on which he was slowly writing passes for his Tory captors. But Wells alone was shot, being hit as he scampered away by William Calloway, and was left as it was supposed that he had been mortally wounded. Riddle and his wife mounted horses and escaped with the others of his band. "Cleveland's servant, who had been a pack-horse for the Tory plunderers," was rescued" his master. Captain Ross, Riddle's Virginia prisoner, was rescued. Shortly after this Riddle captured on Kings creek at night two of Cleveland's noted soldiers, David and John Witherspoon, who resided with their parents on Kings creek, and spirited them many miles away in the mountain region on Watauga river. Here they escaped death by taking the oath of allegiance to the King of England, and were released; but as soon as they reached their home, David hastened to notify Col. Ben. Herndon, several miles down the Yadkin, who with a party of men, under the guidance of the Witherspoon brothers returned and captured Riddle and two of his noted associates, Reeves and Gross, [sic - Goss] who were taken to Wilkesboro and "executed on the hill adjoining the village on a stately oak. Mrs. Riddle," who seems to have accompanied her husband on his wild and reckless marauds, "was present and witnessed his execution." Wells had been captured and hanged by Cleveland a short time before. (P.446.)