What did Patrick Ferguson threaten to do to the wataugans?

Patrick Ferguson threatened to use his Loyalist forces to attack the Wataugans, a group of frontiersmen in what is now Tennessee, if they did not lay down their arms and cease their resistance against British authority. He aimed to intimidate them into submission by promising to destroy their settlements and punish those who opposed British rule. His threats were part of a broader strategy to quell rebellion in the region during the American Revolutionary War.