HORSESHOE ROBINSON (PAGE 68)
Gates: General Horatio Gates of the American army, who had forced the British under Burgoyne to surrender after the battle of Saratoga in 1777. In 1780 he was put in command of the Southern forces of the Revolutionary army. Owing to his poor generalship his forces were defeated near Camden, South Carolina, on August 16, 1780, by Lord Cornwallis, and a few months later Gates was superseded by General Greene. Gates thereupon retired to his home in Virginia.
HORSESHOE CAPTURES FIVE PRISONERS (PAGE 77)
cock-a-whoop: boastful.
THE BATTLE OF KING S MOUNTAIN (PAGE 90)
King s Mountain: a ridge rising a few hundred feet above the sur rounding country just within the limits of South Carolina and about thirty miles southwest of Charlotte, North Carolina. Here was fought on October 7, 1780, a battle between the English and Tory force of one thousand one hundred and twenty-five under Lieutenant-Colonel Ferguson and about one thousand Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky backwoodsmen under William Campbell, James Williams, Benjamin Cleveland, Isaac Shelby, and John Sevier. The engagement lasted about an hour, resulting in so de cisive a defeat for the English that Cornwallis was compelled to post pone for a time his invasion of North Carolina. Froissart: a French chronicler of the fourteenth century.
QUESTIONS, i. In a review of this book Poe praised the character
of Horseshoe Robinson by writing, "In short, he is the man of all others we would like to have riding by our side in any very hazardous adventure." What traits of character does Horseshoe exhibit that would justify this opinion? 2. Are the other characters vividly enough drawn to enable you to analyze their characteristics? 3. What levels of Southern society are represented in the story? 4. Give some of the details regarding the life of each of these levels. 5. What impressions of the devotion of the people to the cause of liberty are given?
WILLIAM GILMORE SIMMS
Of Simms s numerous novels "The Yemassee," from which the selection below is taken, is perhaps his nearest approach to artistic success. While lacking many essential points of greatness, it is a bold,
