Captain Alexander Davidson was one of the earliest settlers of the western part of Rowan county (now Iredell.) He took an active part in the Revolutionary struggle for independence. When Cornwallis was moving from Charleston toward North Carolina, and General Gates was ordered to meet him, Governor Caswell, of North Carolina, ordered a draft of men to strengthen Gates’ army. In response to this order the people in that part of Iredell county bordering on the Catawba river below the Island Ford, assembled at a central point, afterward known as Brown’s Muster Ground, when a company was formed under the draft and Alexander Davidson was elected its captain. Soon afterward Captain Davidson marched his company to Gates’ rendezvous, when that officer moved his army to the unfortunate and sanguinary field of Camden, S.C.
In that disastrous engagement Captain Davidson’s company took an active part, and the greater portion of them was cut to pieces. Captain John Davidson, a grand son of Captain Alexander Davidson, now (1876) resides near Statesville, in Iredell county. He well remembers that the commission of his grand father, as captain of this company, and a diary of his services during the war of the Revolution, were in the possession of his father’s family until 1851 when they were taken to Washington City by the late Hon. J.P. Caldwell and were not returned.
Captain John Davidson is one of the most prominent and public-spirited citizens of Iredell county, and implicit reliance may be placed in his statements.