His men, in terrified disorder, crowded behind their wagons and tried to keep up the fight. Cleveland brought up his force behind them. Completely surrounded, they ~ed to a hollow place. But there was no shelter there. They stood like a herd of deer in a corral, while the infuriated Whigs shot them down, crying, "Buford! Buford! Tarleton's quarter!" One of them rode out of the press showing a white flag. His saddle was emptied. Another met the same fate. Many of the patriots were bent on avenging the deaths of friends or relations killed by the Tories. They would not desist from the slaughter of their helpless enemies. Major Evan Shelby called on the Tories to throw down their arms. They did so, and he implored his men to cease firing. But it was hard to stop them. Campbell rode to the front crying: "For God's sake, quit! It's murder to shoot any more!" De Peyster, in command after Ferguson's death, protested to Campbell against further killing. Campbell ordered the Tory officers to separate from their troops and called to the defeated men to take off their hats and sit down. Even after this submission, the killing did not altogether cease; but at last the rebels ceased firing and gathered in a circle, four deep, around the prisoners, glaring at them, calling out the names of individuals who were known for particular atrocities. When some sort of order was finally restored the prisoners' arms were collected, and they were confined under guard. Ferguson's personal effects were divided, as souvenirs, among the patriot officers. His body was wrapped in an ox hide and buried. Except one body of about 200 who had left that morning on a foraging expedition, not one of Ferguson's men escaped death or capture. Of about 1,000 in the fight, 157 were killed, 163 were wounded so badly that they were left on the field, and 698 were taken prisoners. The patriots lost 28 killed and 62 wounded. Fifteen hundred muskets and rifles and a quantity of stores and ammunition fell into the hands of the victors. The rebels marched their prisoners to Gilberttown. There arose a demand for retaliation upon them for Tarleton's slaughter of surrendered men, and for execution of forty patriot prisoners taken by the British in former encounters, at Camden, at Augusta, and at Ninety-six. One patriot officer present had recently seen eleven of his friends hanged to suppress rebellion. A sort of court was convened, and between thirty and forty individual prisoners were convicted of assisting the British in raiding, looting, and burning houses of the rebels. Of the twelve who were condemned to execution, nine, including Colonel Ambrose Mills, an elderly man of character and reputation, were hanged. One of the twelve escaped; the other two were let off. The disposition of the prisoners presented a problem to the hastily gathered and little organized patriots. The over-mountain men wanted to go home and did go, as did most of the South Carolinians and Virginians. The captives were entrusted to Cleveland's North Carolina men, who finally decided to take them to Gates at Hillsboro. Gates asked Thomas Jefferson, governor of Virginia, what to do with them. Jefferson suggested turning them over to the civil governments of the two Carolinas. But such governments hardly existed. In this impasse they were loosely guarded and within a few months all but sixty escaped. The effect of the victory at Kings Mountain was instantaneous and of great importance. It turned the tide of the war in the south. On receipt of Ferguson's appeal for help, the very day of the battle, Cornwallis had sent Tarleton. Tarleton heard of the disaster on the way and returned in all haste to Cornwallis at Charlotte with the news. Rumor magnified the numbers of rebels to 3,000, and the British commander feared they would sweep around him into South Carolina and capture Ninety-six and Camden. Though the fear was baseless, it was true that the patriots of Mecklenburg and Rowan counties had been aroused and the partisan corps of Marion, Sumter, and Pickens were increasing in numbers and were more and more active. They did present an immediate danger to the British. End of part 5 Debra Clark