Who was this man from long ago? Why does the mention of his name, even today, excite emotions in Southwest Virginia, East and Central Tennessee, and in Kentucky? Is there any importance attached to him other than as a folk figure?

It would not be unreasonable to suggest that the killing of Chief Benge was the most important single event to ever to have happened in the above defined part of the country. The event is and was important both in its own right, and is and was important as a symbol of significant threads in the tapestry of people's lives. To the people of that area of his generation, only the Battle of King's Mountain could rival it as an event of transcendental significance, and through that event involved the forebears of today's citizens of that region, it did not occur in the region itself.

We need to take a step back and examine his life and times to see both why our ancestors were so elated by his death, and why his ghost still stalks the land.