One of the most consequential battles of the Revolutionary War occurred on Oct. 7, 1781. It was part of Britain’s southern campaign. Lord Cornwallis had been sent to this theater because it was believed that the southern colonies were rife with Loyalists (Tories) just waiting to help the British. The North Carolina backwoods were in a civil war between Tories and Patriots. It was nasty and vicious. Cornwallis ordered Major Patrick Ferguson to take an all-Torie unit of 900 into the backcountry and crush the Patriot resistance. Ferguson was a rising star in the British army. He had invented a breech-loading rifle and in an earlier incident had refrained from shooting George Washington when their paths crossed. He threatened to “lay waste to the Torie areas with fire and sword”. The Patriots responded by joining to meet Ferguson’s force. The colonial militia was nominally commanded by Col. William Campbell, but was divided into groups of around 100 commanded by their leaders. Campbell had about 1,000 men. The rebels encountered Ferguson’s men camped on a rocky hill called Kings Mountain. Ferguson was taken by surprise. One of his officers warned him that they were facing “damned yelling boys!” The battle was a series of charges up the hill by the rebels, followed by countercharges by the British down the hill. When the Loyalists returned to the crest, the Patriots would charge again. The Patriots used cover to fire accurately at the enemy. The Loyalists were being whittled away. With defeat staring him in the face, Ferguson made a suicide attack that unhorsed him with a wound. He was surrounded by backwoodsmen. Ferguson used a pistol to shoot one of them. The enraged Americans put six balls in him immediately. The rest of his force soon surrendered. For a while, the rebels gave no quarter in revenge for Col. Banestre Tarleton’s killing of prisoners at the Battle of Waxhaws. The Tories suffered 290 killed, 163 wounded, and 668 captured. Campbell’s force suffered 28 killed and 60 wounded. Kings Mountain has been described as the “largest all-American fight” of the war. The victory was a big boost to Patriot morale in the south because it came after a series of bad defeats like the Battle of Camden. The loss made Cornwallis abandon plans to control North Carolina. He retreated to South Carolina.
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/battle-of-kings-mountain
https://revolutionarywar.us/year-1780/battle-kings-mountain/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kings_Mountain
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