King's Mountain
With the utmost satisfaction I can acquaint you with the sudden and
favorable turn of our public affairs. A few days ago destruction hung
over our heads. Cornwallis with at least 1500 British and Tories waited
at Charlotte for the reinforcement of 1000 from Broad River, which
reinforcement has been entirely cut off, 130 killed and the remainder
captured. Cornwallis immediately retreated, and is now on his way toward
Charleston, with part of our army in his rear....
--Elizabeth Maxwell Steel:
Salisbury, October 25, 1780.
So thoroughly had the Cherokees been subdued by the devastations of the
campaign of 1776 that for several years thereafter they were unable to
organize for a new campaign against the backwoodsmen along the frontiers
of North Carolina and Tennessee. During these years the Holston settlers
principally busied themselves in making their position secure, as well
as in setting their house in order by severely punishing the lawless
Tory element among them. In 1779 the Chickamaugas, with whom The
Dragging Canoe and his irreconcilable followers among the Cherokees had
joined hands after the campaign of 1776, grew so bold in their bloody
forays upon small exposed settlements that North Carolina and Virginia
in conjunction despatched a strong expedition against them. Embarking on
April 10th at the mouth of Big Creek near the present Rogersville,
Tennessee, three hundred and fifty men led by Colonel Evan Shelby
descended the Tennessee to the fastnesses of the Chickamaugas. Meeting
with no resistance from the astonished Indians, who fled to the shelter
of the densely wooded hills, they laid waste the Indian towns and
destroyed the immense stores of goods collected by the British agents
for distribution among the red men. The Chickamaugas were completely
quelled; and during the period of great stress through which the
Tennessee frontiersmen were soon to pass, the Cherokees were restrained
through the wise diplomacy of Joseph Martin, Superintendent of Indian
affairs for Virginia.
The great British offensive against the Southern colonies, which were
regarded as the vulnerable point in the American Confederacy, was fully
launched upon the fall of Charleston in May, 1780. Cornwallis
established his headquarters at Camden; and one of his lieutenants, the
persuasive and brilliant Ferguson, soon rallied thousands of Loyalists
in South Carolina to the British standard. When Cornwallis inaugurated
his campaign for cutting Washington wholly off from the Southern
colonies by invading North Carolina, the men upon the western waters
realized that the time had come to rise, in defense of their state and
in protection of their homes. Two hundred Tennessee riflemen from
Sullivan County, under Colonel Isaac Shelby, were engaged in minor
operations in South Carolina conducted by Colonel Charles McDowell; and
conspicuous among these engagements was the affair at Musgrove's Mill on
August 18th when three hundred horsemen led by Colonel James Williams, a
native of Granville County, North Carolina, Colonel Isaac Shelby, and
Lieutenant-Colonel Clark of Georgia repulsed with heavy loss a British
force of between four and five hundred.
These minor successes availed nothing in face of the disastrous defeat
of Gates by Cornwallis at Camden on August 16th and the humiliating blow
to Sumter at Rocky Mount on the following day. Ferguson hotly pursued
the frontiersmen, who then retreated over the mountains; and from his
camp at Gilbert Town he despatched a threatening message to the Western
leaders, declaring that if they did not desist from their opposition to
the British arms and take protection under his standard, he would march
his army over the mountains and lay their country waste with fire and
sword. Stung to action, Shelby hastily rode off to consult with Sevier
at his log castle near Jonesboro; and together they matured a plan to
arouse the mountain men and attack Ferguson by surprise. In the event of
failure, these wilderness free-lances planned to leave the country and
find a home with the Spaniards in Louisiana. [198]
At the original place of rendezvous, the Sycamore Shoals of the Watauga,
the over-mountain men gathered on September 25th. There an eloquent
sermon was preached to them by that fiery man of God, the Reverend
Samuel Doak, who concluded his discourse with a stirring invocation to
the sword of the Lord and of Gideon--a sentiment greeted with the loud
applause of the militant frontiersmen. Here and at various places along
the march they were joined by detachments of border fighters summoned to
join the expedition--Colonel William Campbell, who with some reluctance
had abandoned his own plans in response to Shelby's urgent and repeated
message, in command of four hundred hardy frontiersmen from Washington
County, Virginia; Colonel Benjamin Cleveland, with the wild fighters of
Wilkes known as "Cleveland's Bulldogs"; Colonel Andrew Hampton, with the
stalwart riflemen of Rutherford; Major Joseph Winston, the cousin of
Patrick Henry, with the flower of the citizenry of Surry; the McDowells,
Charles and Joseph, with the bold borderers of Burke; Colonels Lacy and
Hill, with well-trained soldiers of South Carolina; and
Brigadier-General James Williams, leading the intrepid Rowan volunteers.
Before breaking camp at Quaker Meadows, the leading officers in
conference chose Colonel William Campbell as temporary officer of the
day, until they could secure a general officer from headquarters as
commander-in-chief. The object of the mountaineers and big-game hunters
was, in their own terms, to pursue Ferguson, to run him down, and to
capture him. In pursuance of this plan, the leaders on arriving at the
ford of Green River chose out a force of six hundred men, with the best
mounts and equipment; and at daybreak on October 6th this force of
picked mounted riflemen, followed by some fifty "foot-cavalry" eager to
join in the pursuit, pushed rapidly on to the Cowpens. Here a second
selection took place; and Colonel Campbell, was again elected commander
of the detachment, now numbering some nine hundred and ten horsemen and
eighty odd footmen, which dashed rapidly on in pursuit of Ferguson.
The British commander had been apprised of the coming of the
over-mountain men. Scorning to make a forced march and attempt to effect
a junction with Cornwallis at Charlotte, Ferguson chose to make a stand
and dispose once for all of the barbarian horde whom he denounced as
mongrels and the dregs of mankind. After despatching to Cornwallis a
message asking for aid, Ferguson took up his camp on King's Mountain,
just south of the North Carolina border line, in the present York
County, South Carolina. Here, after his pickets had been captured in
silence, he was surprised by his opponents. At three o'clock in the
afternoon of October 7th the mountain hunters treed their game upon the
heights.
The battle which ensued presents an extraordinary contrast in the
character of the combatants and the nature of the strategy and tactics.
[199] Each party ran true to form--Ferguson repeating Braddock's
suicidal policy of opposing bayonet charges to the deadly fusillade of
riflemen, who in Indian fashion were carefully posted behind trees and
every shelter afforded by the natural inequalities of the ground. In the
army of the Carolina and Virginia frontiersmen, composed of independent
detachments recruited from many sources and solicitous for their own
individual credit, each command was directed in the battle by its own
leader. Campbell--like Cleveland, Winston, Williams, Lacey, Shelby,
McDowell, Sevier, and Hambright--personally led his own division; but
the nature of the fighting and the peculiarity of the terrain made it
impossible for him, though the chosen commander of the expedition,
actually to play that rôle in the battle. The plan agreed upon in
advance by the frontier leaders was simple enough--to surround and
capture Ferguson's camp on the high plateau. The more experienced Indian
fighters, Sevier and Shelby, unquestionably suggested the general scheme
which in any case would doubtless have been employed by the
frontiersmen; it was to give the British "Indian play"--namely to take
cover everywhere and to fire from natural shelter. Cleveland, a Hercules
in strength and courage who had fought the Indians and recognized the
wisdom of Indian tactics, ordered his men, as did some of the other
leaders, to give way before a bayonet charge, but to return to the
attack after the charge had spent its force.
"My brave fellows," said Cleveland, "every man must consider himself an
officer, and act from his own judgment. Fire as quick as you can, and
stand your ground as long as you can. When you can do no better, get
behind trees, or retreat; but I beg you not to run quite off. If we are
repulsed, let us make a point of returning and renewing the fight;
perhaps we may have better luck in the second attempt than in the
first."
The plateau upon which Ferguson was encamped was the top of an eminence
some six hundred yards long and about two hundred and fifty yards from
one base across to the other; and its shape was that of an Indian
paddle, varying from one hundred and twenty yards at the blade to sixty
yards at the handle in width. Outcropping boulders upon the outer edge
of the plateau afforded some slight shelter for Ferguson's force; but,
unsuspicious of attack, Ferguson had made no abatis to protect his camp
from the assault to which it was so vulnerable because of the protection
of the timber surrounding it on all sides. As to the disposition of the
attacking force, the center to the northeast was occupied by Cleveland
with his "Bulldogs," Hambright with his South Fork Boys from the Catawba
(now Lincoln County, North Carolina), and Winston with his Surry
riflemen; to the south were the divisions of Joseph McDowell, Sevier,
and Campbell; while Lacey's South Carolinians, the Rowan levies under
Williams, and the Watauga borderers under Shelby were stationed upon the
north side. Ferguson's forces consisted of Provincial Rangers, one
hundred and fifty strong, and other well-drilled Loyalists, between
eight and nine hundred in number; but his strength was seriously
weakened by the absence of a foraging party of between one and two
hundred who had gone off on the morning the battle occurred. Shelby's
men, before getting into position, received a hot fire, the opening
shots of the engagement. This inspired Campbell, who now threw off his
coat, to shout encouraging orders to his men posted on the side of the
mountain opposite to Shelby's force. When Campbell's Virginians uttered
a series of piercing shouts, the British officer, De Peyster, second in
command, remarked to his chief: "These things are ominous--these are the
damned yelling boys."
The battle, which lasted some minutes short of an hour, was waged with
terrific ferocity. The Loyalist militia, whenever possible, fired from
the shelter of the rocks; while the Provincial Corps, with fixed
bayonets, steadily charged the frontiersmen, who fired at close range
and then rapidly withdrew to the very base of the mountain. After each
bayonet charge the Provincials coolly withdrew to the summit, under the
accumulating fire of the returning mountaineers, who quickly gathered in
their rear. Owing to their elevated location, the British, although
using the rapid-fire breech-loading rifle invented by Ferguson himself,
found their vision deflected, and continually fired high, thus suffering
from nature's handicap, refraction. [200] The militia, using sharpened
butcher-knives which Ferguson had taught them to utilize as bayonets,
charged against the mountaineers; but their fire, in answer to the
deadly fusillade of the expert squirrel-shooters, was belated, owing to
the fact that they could not fire while the crudely improvised bayonets
remained inserted in their pieces. The Americans, continually firing
upward, found ready marks for their aim in the clearly delineated
outlines of their adversaries, and felt the fierce exultation which
animates the hunter who has tracked to its lair and surrounded wild game
at bay.
The leaders of the various divisions of the mountaineers bore themselves
with impetuous bravery, recklessly rushing between the lines of fire and
with native eloquence, interspersed with profanity, rallying their
individual commands again and again to the attack. The valiant Campbell
scaled the rugged heights, loudly encouraging his men to the ascent.
Cleveland, resolutely facing the foe, urged on his Bulldogs with the
inspiriting words: "Come, boys; let's try 'em again. We'll have better
luck next time." No sooner did Shelby's men reach the bottom of the
hill, in retreating before a charge, than their commander, fiery and
strenuous, ardently shouted: "Now boys, quickly reload your rifles, and
let's advance upon them, and give them another hell of a fire." The most
deadly charge, led by De Peyster himself, fell upon Hambright's South
Fork boys; and one of their gallant officers, Major Chronicle, waving
his military hat, was mortally wounded, the command, "Face to the
hill!", dying on his lips. These veteran soldiers, unlike the
mountaineers, firmly met the shock of the charge, and a number of their
men were shot down or transfixed; but the remainder, reserving their
fire until the charging column was only a few feet away, poured in a
deadly volley before retiring. The gallant William Lenoir, whose
reckless bravery made him a conspicuous target for the enemy, received
several wounds and emerged from the battle with his hair and clothes
torn by balls. The ranking American officer, Brigadier-General James
Williams, was mortally wounded while "on the very top of the mountain,
in the thickest of the fight"; and as he momentarily revived, his first
words were: "For God's sake, boys, don't give up the hill." [201]
Hambright, sorely wounded, his boot overflowing with blood and his hat
riddled with three bullet holes, declined to dismount, but pressed
gallantly forward, exclaiming in his "Pennsylvania Dutch": "Huzza, my
prave poys, fight on a few minutes more, and the pattle will be over!"
On the British side, Ferguson was supremely valorous, rapidly dashing
from one point to another, rallying his men, oblivious to all danger.
Wherever the shrill note of his silver whistle sounded, there the
fighting was hottest and the British resistance the most stubborn. His
officers fought with the characteristic steadiness of the British
soldier; and again and again his men charged headlong against the
wavering and fiery circle of the frontiersmen. [202]
Ferguson's boast that "he was on King's Mountain, that he was king of
the Mountain, and God Almighty could not drive him from it" was
doubtless prompted, less by a belief in the impregnability of his
position, than by a desperate desire to inspire confidence in his men.
His location was admirably chosen for defense against attack by troops
employing regulation tactics; but, never dreaming of the possibility of
sudden investment, Ferguson had erected no fortifications for his
encampment. His frenzied efforts on the battle-field seem like a mad
rush against fate; for the place was indefensible against the peculiar
tactics of the frontiersmen. While the mountain flamed like a volcano
and resounded with the thunder of the guns, a steady stricture was in
progress. The lines were drawn tighter and tighter around the trapped
and frantically struggling army; and at last the fall of their
commander, riddled with bullets, proved the tragic futility of further
resistance. The game was caught and bagged to a man. When Winston, with
his fox-hunters of Surry, dashed recklessly through the woods, says a
chronicler of the battle, and the last to come into position,
Flow'd in, and settling, circled all the lists,
then
From all the circle of the hills
death sleeted in upon the doomed.
The battle was decisive in its effect--shattering the plans of
Cornwallis, which till then appeared certain of success. The victory put
a full stop to the invasion of North Carolina, which was then well under
way. Cornwallis abandoned his carefully prepared campaign and
immediately left the state. After ruthlessly hanging nine prisoners, an
action which had an effectively deterrent effect upon future Tory
murders and depredations, the patriot force quietly disbanded. The
brilliant initiative of the buckskin-clad borderers, the strenuous
energy of their pursuit, the perfection of their surprise--all
reinforced by the employment of ideal tactics for meeting the given
situation--were the controlling factors in this overwhelming victory of
the Revolution. The pioneers of the Old Southwest--the independent and
aggressive yeomanry of North Carolina, Virginia, and South Carolina--had
risen in their might. Without the aid or authority of blundering state
governments, they had created an army of frontiersmen, Indian-fighters,
and big-game hunters which had found no parallel or equal on the
continent since the Battle of the Great Kanawha.