The Battle of Kings Mountain took place on Oct. 7, 1780. The “mountain” is a sixteen-mile ridge that crosses the border of North and South Carolina.[1] About five miles from the battle is the town of Kings Mountain, in North Carolina. The town was named in honor of the revolutionary battle, which was a Patriot victory.
It was not only a Patriot victory, but an important turning point in the American Revolution. It ended a string of British wins as the British moved through the Carolinas. However, this battle (like Moore’s Creek Bridge early in the war) was a fight between Patriots and Loyalists—a civil war, if you will. The only British soldier was Major Patrick Ferguson, the commander, who died in the conflict.
Making the battle a success for the Patriots were “Overmountain men.” These were men from the west side of the Appalachians, located in what is now Tennessee and Kentucky as well as the Carolinas. They were farmers and hunters who used rifles rather than the muskets typically used by the British army. Joined by Virginians as they responded to the call for Patriot soldiers, the militias added more soldiers as they crossed the mountains.
The Southern Campaign
Until 1780, most of the battles of the American Revolution had been fought in the middle or northern colonies. British efforts to capture southern cities failed early in the war, but by 1780, the British had moved south again and captured Savannah and Charleston.
General Charles Cornwallis decided to start a “Southern campaign” through Georgia and the Carolinas. He believed that the southern colonists were more loyal to Great Britain than the other colonists and that many Loyalists would join the British troops. The former British governor of North Carolina, Josiah Martin, encouraged him in that idea. Another reason for the campaign has been suggested—that the British had decided that if they lost the North, at least they could win in the South. The region was much more important to Britain because of its raw materials, especially cotton.
Major Patrick Ferguson, a respected and twice-wounded commander, had been tapped to go into the Carolinas, guarding the left flank of General Cornwallis’s army as it moved northwest. Recruitment of Loyalists was part of Major Ferguson’s assignment.
According to the American Battlefields Trust, “From the start Ferguson miscalculated his potential foes, brazenly issuing a proclamation for the local patriots to ‘desist from their opposition to British arms’ or he would ‘march over the mountains, hang their leaders, and lay their country to waste with fire and sword.’”[2] That scary message encouraged Patriots rather than dissuaded them.
The Battle
The “Overmountain” militias were led by capable commanders such as Isaac Shelby and John Sevier. They decided to take on Ferguson’s troops. Some of their soldiers were 100 miles away when the army was being gathered, but they rode overnight to reach the other Patriots. William A. Powell writes that when he heard about the Overmountain men, “Ferguson laughed at this ragtag band, which he pretended to despise—he called it ‘a set of mongrels.’”[3]
Ferguson confidently settled in on a Kings Mountain hill to resist the upcoming attack. In the battle the Patriots had 910 soldiers, the Loyalists, 1125.[4] A group of Overmountain men climbed up one side of the hill but were thwarted. Meanwhile, another group went up the other side of the hill. They had received orders to act on their own rather than wait for commands, so they attacked wildly, shouting and war whooping. With their rifles they had an easy target—Major Ferguson, rallying his troops on horseback. He was shot and died during the battle.
After Ferguson’s death, the battle quickly ended. According to William A. Link, 129 Loyalists were killed, 23 wounded and 664 captured. Only 28 Patriots were killed and only 62 wounded.[5]
The defeat at Kings Mountain marked the beginning of Cornwallis’s difficulties in the Southern Campaign. Having lost his entire left flank, he returned to South Carolina to build up his forces. But he never again won a major battle in the Revolution.
For some, Kings Mountain has a special place. In 1822, Thomas Jefferson wrote about the battle: “I remember well the deep and grateful impression made on the minds of every one by that memorable victory. It was the joyful annunciation of that turn of the tide of success which terminated the Revolutionary War, with the seal of our independence.”[6]