Kings Mountain

The Battle of Kings Mountain on October 7, 1780 was fought entirely by Americans — on both sides. No British regular soldiers participated. On one side, approximately 900 Patriot "Overmountain Men" from the Watauga settlements of present-day Tennessee, and from Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia. On the other, approximately 1,100 Loyalist militia under the command of Major Patrick Ferguson, the only British officer on the field. Ferguson died on the mountain. His command was annihilated. The battle changed the trajectory of the Southern Campaign.

The context requires understanding what had happened in the months before. After the fall of Charleston in May 1780 and the destruction of the second Southern Army at Camden in August, British control of South Carolina appeared essentially complete. Cornwallis was preparing to push into North Carolina and Virginia. Ferguson commanded the left flank of that advance, recruiting and training Loyalist militia across the Carolina backcountry. He sent a message to the Patriot settlements west of the mountains: if they did not cease their opposition, he would cross the mountains, hang their leaders, and lay waste to their country.

The Overmountain Men took the threat as a call to arms rather than a warning. Colonels Isaac Shelby and John Sevier organized a force from the Watauga settlements and moved east over the mountains to find Ferguson. They were joined by units from Virginia under William Campbell and from the Carolinas under Benjamin Cleveland and Joseph Winston. The assembled force — all volunteer, all mounted, all riflemen — numbered around 900 men when they located Ferguson at Kings Mountain, a narrow ridge rising seventy feet above the surrounding plateau on the North Carolina–South Carolina border.

Ferguson chose the site deliberately. The summit of Kings Mountain, he wrote, was the best defensive position in the world and God Almighty himself could not drive him off it. The Overmountain Men surrounded the base and attacked uphill from multiple directions simultaneously. The defenders' muskets were disadvantaged against rifle fire from tree cover below. Ferguson was shot dead on the mountain. The Loyalist force, unable to retreat and refused quarter by some attackers still furious over the Waxhaws massacre five months earlier, suffered approximately 290 killed and 163 wounded; the remaining 700 surrendered. Patriot casualties were around 90 killed and wounded. Cornwallis, receiving news of Ferguson's destruction, canceled his invasion of North Carolina and withdrew to winter quarters in South Carolina. Thomas Jefferson called Kings Mountain the turn of the tide of success. The backcountry Loyalist movement never recovered. The Overmountain Men disappeared back over the mountains and fought no more battles in the Revolution — but the battle they fought reshaped the war.