A marauding party of Loyalists had made an incursion in the neighborhood of Mount Willing, near which Capt. Butler lived, carrying off considerable booty, and a band of Whigs being formed for their pursuit, he was called upon to take command of the expedition. At first he positively refused to go at all, saying that his hardships and privations already endured, and his recent return to his home ought to exempt him from such an undertaking. But his son, James Butler, also of the party, refusing to continue of the expedition unless his father assumed its direction, Captain Butler yielded to the appeal and consented to go as an adviser, the actual command being in Captain Turner. The Loyalists were over taken, dispersed at Varra's Spring, in Lexington District, and the horses and cattle they had taken recaptured. Upon the return of the Whig Party they stopped at Cloud's Creek and encamped, refusing to move onwards or to adopt the ordinary precaution against surprise not withstanding the urgent remonstrances of Captain Butler. It was not known then who were the Loyalists they had been pursuing, but the next morning demonstrated the wisdom of his advice. They proved to have been connected with a larger band, and about sunrise, the band amounting to some three hundred men, under the lead of William Cunningham,
