The little log-huts in which their families lived were in daily danger of Indian attack; and it was absolutely necessary that they should be on hand to protect them.

They were, for the most part, very poor men, whose sole sources of livelihood were the stock they kept beyond the mountains.

They loved their country greatly, and had shown the sincerity of their patriotism by the spontaneous way in which they risked their lives on this expedition.

They had no hope of reward; for they neither expected nor received any pay, except in liquidated certificates, worth two cents on the dollar.

Shelby's share of these, for his services as colonel throughout '80 and '81, was sold by him for "six yards of middling broadcloth" [Footnote: Shelby's MS.
autobiography.]; so it can be readily imagined how little each private got for the King's Mountain expedition.