(Ings Mountain NATIONAL MILITARY PA'rk

/(ings Mountain NATIONAL MILITARY PA'RK SOUTH CAROLINA Kings Mountain NATIONAL MILITARY PARK United States Department of the Interior, J. A. Krug, Secretary National Park Service, Newton B. Drury, Director Climax of a victorious rising of American frontiersmen against British and Tories in the Carolina foothills in 1780 which foreshadowed the British military defeats of 178I Kings Mountain, the fierce attack of American Unimpeded by effective resistance, the British frontiersmen on October 7, 1780, against Corn- Southern Campaign swept unchecked through wallis' scouting force under Ferguson, was an Georgia and part of South Carolina during unexpected onslaught carried out in the foothills 1778-79. The surrender of Gen. Benjamin Lin- of northwestern South Carolina. This sudden up- coln's American army at Charleston, in May rising of the stalwart Alleghany mountaineers, 1780, greatly strengthened the British position. for the protection of their homes and people Soon most of South Carolina, except a few dis- from the threat of Tory invasion under British tricts in the Piedmont, was overrun by British leadership, was relatively isolated in conception and Royalist forces directed by Lord Cornwallis. and execution from the main course of the His plans for an immediate invasion of North Revolutionary War in the South. Carolina were upset temporarily by the advance Clearly unforeseen in the grand British plan of a new American army under Gates. At Cam- to subjugate the South in a final effort to end den, on August 16, 1780, Gates suffered a disas- the Revolution, this accidental encounter in the trous defeat, again leaving South Carolina and Southern Piedmont delayed incidentally, but did the route northward open to the British. not alter materially, the movement of Britain's Southern Campaign. Kings Mountain is notable chiefly perhaps as supplying the first definite Cornwallis Threatens the Frontier forewarning of the impending British military disasters in 1781. It was decisive to the extent The only southern region in the path of Corn- that it contributed the earliest distinct element wallis' northward march remaining undisturbed of defeat to the final major British campaign of by the course of the war lay in the foothills and the Revolution. ranges of the Alleghanies stretching through northwestern South Carolina, western North Carolina, and into the present eastern Tennessee. The Southern Campaign Here, the independent mountain yeomen, largely of Scotch-Irish descent, were occupied with The extraordinary action at Kings Mountain establishing a new frontier and protecting their occurred during one of the bleakest periods of rude homes from the nearer threat of the border the Revolution. A major change in British mili- Indians, and had been little concerned with the tary strategy had again shifted the sceneof action war on the seaboard. But their free and compar- to the South in 1778. Faced by a discouraging atively peaceful existence was soon to be dis- campaign in the North, and assuming that the turbed by a threat of direct aggression. reputed Loyalist sympathies of the South would That threat came from Maj. Patrick Ferguson, be more conducive to a victory there, the British of Cornwallis' command, who, after Camden, war ministry now undertook to conquer the had been ordered to operate in the South Caro- South. lina Piedmont to suppress the Whig opposition upon which Ferguson camped and gradually to Whig detachments moved into position around close in from all sides. the ridge After dismounting and passing through Ham- As the two Whig commands neared Fergu- U It J f bright's Gap, some three-quarters of a mile west son's lines, the Tories charged and drove them of Kings Mountain, the frontier detachments down tile slope at the point of the bayonet. JRICK FERGUSON, tile best shot in the moved rapidly into their preassigned positions Though they had no bayonets, the Whigs rallied .British army, invented a rifle ill 1776thaI around the ridge. Seeking cover in the wooded at the foot, and the unerring marksmanship of . loaded at the iJTeecn. <It W9S tHe flr.!'! breech- ravines, the Whigs advanced, and Campbell and their deadly Kentucky rifles forced their pursuers loader carried by the troops of ally' cOllll/rg. McDowell hurriedly passed through the gap at to retire. Slowly following the retreating Tories Jhe PTovil7ciCl/ RefllllaT.!'.aTeJ;ilieved to nave the southwestern end of the ridge, taking their and Provincials, Campbell's and Shelby's men used this J'pli?l7did We9p017flt J(inlP MOl/l7feilJ _ positions respectively on the southeastern and were again driven down the rugged incline by J/le Tifle was a17e9d of"Its time end WBJ' eastern slopes. Sevier formed along the western the Tory bayonets. Taking cover behind trees di.rcarded artel' hiJ' de9th, JTt lei' llOW Tare . slope, while Shelby took position on the north- and rocks, the two Whig commands again forced western slope. Meanwhile, the other Whig de- the Tories to retreat toward the crest. tachments were forming along the bottom of Much of the volley firing of the Provincials the ravine leading around the northern and and Tories, with their muskets and a possible northeastern base of the ridge. scattering of Ferguson breech-loading rifles, was Ferguson's main camp was near the northeast- aimed too high and passed harmlessly over the ern end of the ridge, but his picket line extended heads of the two Whig detachments, which now along the crest nearly to its southwestern end. pushed even higher toward the crest. As the About 3 P: m., as the Whigs began to encircle Tories began their third bayonet charge upon the ridge, Ferguson's pickets sounded the alarm Campbell and Shelby, they were suddenly at- and engaged the advancing mountaineers in a tacked along the northern and eastern slopes by remaining there and to arouse the back-country been warned meanwhile at Gilbert Town by brief skirmish. Then, as they reached their posi- the other Whig detachments. Moving to meet Tories. In September 1780, he undertook a raid Whig deserters, was withdrawing into South tions, Campbell and Shelby almost simultane- the Whig attack from these quarters, the Tories against Gilbert Town, a Whig outpost in the Carolina. Joining the forces of Shelby and Sevier ously opened the main attack. From the crest the allowed Campbell and Shelby to gain and hold North Carolina mountains, near the present were Joseph McDowell"s men and the Virginians Tories and Provincials replied with a burst of the southwestern summit. town of Rutherfordton. Fearful of such an inva- under Col. William Campbell, and as the expe- trained volley firing. But Campbell's and Shel- Now completely surrounded, Ferguson's de- sion, the border leaders, Col. Isaac Shelby, of dition marched through the Catawba Valley, it by's men moved steadily up the slope Indian moralized and rapidly decreasing force was Sullivan County, and Col.John Sevier, of Wash- was augmented by the North Carolina border fashion, from tree to rock, and for 10 to 15 min- gradually pushed toward its camp site on the ington County, North Carolina (both now in fighters under Benjamin Cleveland. utes maintained their attack, while the other northeastern end of the ridge. In this desperate Tennessee), had hurried to the Watauga settle- At the Cowpens in upper South Carolina, the situation, with attacks and counterattacks raging ments and called for volunteers to defeat the expedition, now under the command of Colonel Ferguson's Grave on all sides, the piercing note of Ferguson's silver Bri tish leader. Campbell, was joined on October 6 by further whistle urging his forces on continued to be Reaching Gilbert Town early in September, volunteers under local Whig leaders, including heard above the din of the shooting and shrill Ferguson dispatched his famed invidious threat William Chronicle, James Williams, Edward whoops of the mountaineers until he attempted over the mountains to the backwoodsmen, warn- Lacey, and James, Hawthorne. Recruits brought ing them "that if they did not desist from their definite word of Ferguson's whereabouts near to escape through Cleveland's lines near the opposition to the British arms and take protec- Kings Mountain. There, in a final council of northeastern crest. Suddenly, the British leader tion under his standard, he would march his war, were selected 910 stalwart fighting men, all was struck from his horse by at least eight balls army over the mountains, hang their leaders, and mounted, who immediately moved through the fired by the mountain sharpshooters, and expired lay their country waste with fire and .sword." night upon the position of Ferguson's Provincial a few minutes later. De Peyster. his second in Corps and Tory militia 1,125 strong, now en- command, attempted to rally the confused sur- camped atop the Kings Mountain spur. viving Tories and Provincials, but his efforts Rising of the Mountain Men were futile and he ordered a surrender. During the bloody one-hour engagement that raged To'the freedom-loving frontier leaders the Battle of Kings Mountain along the heavily wooded and rocky slopes, the threat became a challenge which strengthened mountaineers, veterans of countless frontier their determination to destroy the invader. Thus Pushing northeastwardly through the cold clashes even though untrained in formal warfare, spurred, they assembled quickly, each in hunting night rain, the expedition forded Broad River at with a slight loss of 28 killed and 62 wounded, garb, with knapsack, blanket, and long hunting sunrise in the continuing downpour. But by had gained a complete victory, killing or captur- rifle, most of them mounted, but some afoot. midday on October 7 the rain had ceased, and as ing Ferguson's entire force. Meeting at Sycamore Shoals, near the present the frontiersmen neared Kings Mountain their The Kings Mountain expedition and engage- Elizabethton, Tenn., on September 26, the moun- scouts confirmed Ferguson's position there.

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