Battle of Kings Mountain

7 October 1780

Continental Victory

In the Fall of 1780, British Maj. Patrick Ferguson led a group of 1,000 Loyalists and Provincial troops on raids throughout the back country of South Carolina. In early October, Ferguson captured a rebel and released him, directing him to notify the community that Ferguson would lay waste to the countryside with “fire and sword” if they did not stop supporting rebels. Ferguson threatened to hang all the rebel leaders and abuse the wives and daughters of all involved. However, this threat did not work as he intended. Infuriated, Patriot militia organized for an attack. Col. William Campbell, commander of the militia units, led 900 men to surround Kings Mountain and engaged Ferguson’s men on 7 October. Ferguson ordered repeated bayonet attacks to drive the rebels back, but they kept returning, gaining footholds on the heights. Ferguson was struck by several rounds and killed, and his men collapsed. It was a major blow to Loyalist support for the British in the backcountry.

General Sir Henry Clinton remembered Kings Mountain as "the first… of a Chain of Evils that… at last ended in the total loss of America." Cowed by the fate of their compatriots, North Carolina Tories began to wane in their support of Lt. Gen. Charles, Lord Cornwallis and the British cause. The victory at Kings Mountain not only gave the patriots time to regroup for the campaign that eventually led to Yorktown but also proved a major patriot victory in the vicious struggle for political allegiances in the south. The frontier militia had turned the tide; but having done so, they returned to their homes. Instead, Maj. Gen. Nathanael Greene was tasked to keep the tide moving against the British.

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