<P> On September 2, Ferguson and the militia he had already recruited marched west in pursuit of Shelby toward the Appalachian Mountain hill country on what is now the Tennessee / North Carolina border . By September 10, Ferguson had established a base camp at Gilbert Town, North Carolina and, according to Shelby issued a challenge to the Patriot leaders to lay down their arms or he would "lay waste to their country with fire and sword ." </P> <P> North Carolina Patriot militia leaders Isaac Shelby and John Sevier, from the Washington District (now northeast Tennessee), met and agreed to lead their militiamen against him . </P> <P> Patriot leaders also sent word to a Virginia militia leader, William Campbell, asking him to join them at Sycamore Shores. Campbell called on Benjamin Cleveland to bring his Wilkes County, North Carolina militia to the rendezvous . The detachments of Shelby, Sevier and Campbell were met by 160 North Carolina militiamen led by Charles McDowell and his brother Joseph . Campbell's cousin, Arthur Campbell, brought 200 more Virginians . About 1,100 volunteers from southwest Virginia and today's northeast Tennessee, known as the "Overmountain Men" because they had settled into the wilderness west of the Appalachian Mountains ridgeline, mustered at the rendezvous on September 25, 1780, at Sycamore Shoals near the modern city of Elizabethton, Tennessee . Their movement had been made possible by easing tensions with the Cherokee, thanks to diplomacy by Benjamin Cleveland's brother - in - law, Indian agent Joseph Martin . The Overmountain Men crossed Roan Mountain the next day, and proceeded in a southerly direction for about thirteen days in anticipation of fighting the British Loyalist forces . By September 30, they had reached Quaker Meadows, the Burke County, North Carolina home of the McDowell brothers, where they united with Benjamin Cleveland and 350 men . Now 1400 strong, the Patriots marched to South Mountain, North Carolina, The five colonels leading the Patriot force (Shelby, Sevier, William Campbell, Joseph McDowell and Cleveland) chose William Campbell as the nominal commander, but they agreed that all five would act in council to command their combined army . </P> <P> Meanwhile, two deserters from the Patriot militia reached Patrick Ferguson and informed him of the large body of militia advancing towards him . Waiting three days for reasons that are still unclear, Ferguson ordered a retreat to Lord Cornwallis and the British main forces in Charlotte, sending a message to Cornwallis requesting reinforcements . The request did not reach Cornwallis until one day after the battle . On October 1, Ferguson reached North Carolina's Broad River, where he issued another pugnacious public letter, calling the local militia to join him lest they be "pissed upon by a set of mongrels" (the Overmountain Men). </P>

Who was the american commander at the battle of king's mountain