BGuthrie Photos: SC -- Kings Mountain Natl Military Park

SC -- Kings Mountain Natl Military Park:

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. KINGS_030830_001_STITCH.JPG: A little panorama of the smaller monument on the battlefield
2. KINGS_030830_009.JPG: From various signs (and the park had great signs!): Liberty! Gunshots and the shouts of hundreds of men battered the slope you see just ahead as one of the fiercest battles of the American Revolution broke out. Every man here that day knew that the Carolina back-country had burned and bled since May when the British landed on the coast. Unrelenting civil war had scourged the South with partisan plundering, bushwhacking, and brutal massacres -- neighbor against rancorous neighbor, and fathers against sons. For the first time since Lexington and Concord, people living in the nearby piedmont and over-mountain settlements had to make a hard choice. The men who charged through these woods were determined to defend their homes. They had taken up arms against the King and his officers, and now they would spill blood -- for a new country. Patriot fighters here wore their everyday frontier clothes, not military uniforms. Some Whigs puts scraps of white paper in their hats, the only way to distinguish a friend from a Tory foe. Militiamen answered the call to duty armed with an assortment of weapons from their farms and hunting camps -- long rifles, hunting knives, muskets, and tomahawks. Carolina Backwoodsmen "This distinguished race of men are more savage than the Indians, and possess every one of their vices, but not one of their virtues. I have known... these fellows (to) travel 200 miles through the woods never keeping any road or path, guided by the sun by day, and the stars by night, to kill a particular person of the opposite party." -- George Hanger, British officer formerly attached to Ferguson's provincial corps Many British leaders, like Major Hanger, had little hesitation in voicing low options of the pioneers who lived on the farthest edges of the Empire. As the first shots rang out, the woods to your left were filled with 160 such men, who had indeed traveled more than 200 miles of roadless wilderness to oppose the King. Leaving their hard-ridden horses tied a mile from Kings Mountain, rough riflemen rushed along the slope to take up their assigned place here. Their job -- to block the Tories should they try to escape to rejoin Lord Cornwallis. In late September, these western Carolina Whigs had ridden over the highest mountains in the East to answer the call for patriots to rally at Sycamore Shoals, Tennessee. As these over-mountain men crossed 4,700-foot-high Roan Mountain coming back east, they rode through snow that was already "shoe-tongue deep." Fighting in a Forest Primeval "Kings Mountain... would have enabled us to oppose a superior force with advantage had it not been covered with wood which sheltered the Americans and enabled them to fight in their favorite manner." -- Alexander Chesney, South Carolina Loyalist The woods you see around you today may look ancient, but they are only a shadow of the mature forest that stood here October 1780. Hardwood trees like oaks, hickories, and chestnuts covered the slopes of Kings Mountain, their great trunks massive by today's standards. Each tree stood much farther apart than you see here. Nor was there as much underbrush. Both Whig and Tory accounts of the battle say they could see their enemies at long distances, and could move rapidly under the forest canopy. At the time of the battle, the top of the mountain was bare, open ground. The last time timber was cut off Kings Mountain was less than a century ago. Forest has been reclaiming both the side slopes and the crest. Local Boys & Spies The patriots who formed battle lines at the foot of this steep hillside were local boys who knew Kings Mountain well. Some had used the larger clearing atop the ridge as a deerhunters' camp. Local men from the South Fork settlements had helped the Whig colonels scout out where the King's men had taken their stand. As 25-year-old Major William Chronicle ordered his militia to "Face the hill," many a man knew he would have to face close relatives or neighbors among the Tories they would soon fight. Near here Whig scouts questioned a Tory girl who had just been up to Ferguson's campsite to deliver some chickens. From her, and from John Ponder, a 14-year-old local lad just captured with the major's last letter in hand, they learned a key fact. The British commander was wearing an unusual "checkered hunting shirt" over his fine officer's redcoat.
3. KINGS_030830_015.JPG: This marker says: Sacred to the memory of Major William Chronicle, Captain John Mattocks, William Rabb and John Boyd, who were killed at this place on the 7th of October 1780 fighting in defense of America. Colonel Ferguson, an officer of his Britannic majesty, was defeated and killed at this place on the 7th of October 1780. Note: This inscription is a copy of that on the old monument erected by Dr William MacLean in 1815. This stone has been placed here by the Kings Mountain Association of Yorkville, South Carolina.
4. KINGS_030830_023.JPG: From other signs: Tighten the Noose "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..." -- Benjamin Cleveland, North Carolina patriot leader The hard morning rain had stopped, leaving the fallen leaves on the forest floor here sodden. But wet leaves, as a squirrel hunter knows, soak up sound, even the footsteps of hundreds of patriots moving fast. The North Carolinians who fought here had the farthest to go to tighten a noose around the Tories. Leaving their horses half a mile away to your right, they had to slog over swampy ground to reach this slope. Arriving ten minutes late, they saw loyalist pickets ahead. Then the din of war-whoops and rifle shots broke out. North Carolina sent more patriots to fight here than any other state. Although the other mountain men from Virginia and Tennessee somehow gained greater fame for the Kings Mountain victory, the piedmont patriots out-numbered them two to one. Shoot Tree to Tree "Ben Hollingsworth and myself took right up the side of the mountain, and fought our way from tree to tree, up to the summit. I recollect I stood behind one tree and fired until the bark was nearly all knocked off, and my eyes pretty well filled with it. One fellow shaved me pretty close, for his button took a piece out of my gun stock. Before I was aware of it, I found myself apparently between my own regiment and the enemy, as I judged by seeing the paper the Whigs wore in their hats and the pine twigs the Tories wore in theirs..." -- Thomas Young, 16 years old, South Carolina patriot Over 400 South Carolina patriots had joined the marched to Kings Mountain at the Cowpens, one day before the fight. In the summer of 1780, some of the bitterest fighting of the Revolution had raged around these men's homes and farms. Be Your Own Officer "When we encounter the enemy, don't wait for a word of command. Let each of you be your own officer, and do the very best you can... If in the woods, shelter yourselves and give them Indian play; advance from tree to tree... and killing and disabling all you can..." -- Isaac Shelby, Tennessee patriot leader One by one, rough woodsmen from beyond the Blue Ridge plunged through the forest and up the slop you see before you as the shooting started. Life on the frontier and long experience in Indian warfare had hardened them into fierce individual fighters, not much prone to take directions from others. And like Indians, they hollered out loud as they aimed and fired, dashed and ducked. Although their tiny farms were far away, seemingly deep in mountain strongholds, these Whigs took seriously Major Ferguson's threat to cross the mountains, hang their leaders, and lay waste their country with fire and sword -- enough to tramp over the Blue Ridge twice to stop him. The Crown forces atop Kings Mountain knew this regiment of frontiersmen. Six weeks earlier, Shelby's men had ambushed and bloodied Ferguson's troops at Musgroves Mill.
5. KINGS_030830_032.JPG: From the signs: Charging Cold Steel -- Three Times Everyone knew Colonel Sevier's rugged frontiersmen for their long-rifle marksmanship -- and their touchy eagerness for a brawl. But no experienced military man of that day expected men armed only with hunting rifles to be able to face and defeat real soldiers, trained to use the bayonet. It had never happened -- until Kings Mountain. Three times longhunters from eastern Tennessee charged up this mountainside. Once, then twice they were chased back down by Tories wielding 17-inch-long bayonets. Somehow Sevier's patriots found the courage to stop running, turn around, and go back up against that fearsome cold steel one last time. Every man at Kings Mountain, Whig or Tory, knew that only six weeks ago, patriot militia had been overwhelmed in battle at Camden, South Carolina. There, well-drilled Crown troops had used standard European tactics and cold steel to send the Whigs running for their lives. Drive the Enemy The ridge ahead was craggy and rough, and covered with flame and smoke. Campbell's Virginia regiment had drawn a tough and bloody assignment: to lead the first strike against the Tories. They were the first to close with the enemy, the first to hear the thunder of the drums, and the first to face the terror of the bayonets coming downhill. Some patriots stood their ground and were run through. Most broke and ran. The loyalists stopped their charge at the foot of this hill. William Campbell stood half-way between his foe and his own men, now on the run. As he saw his neighbors make tracks for the next ridge, he shouted, "Halt! Return my brave fellows, and you will drive the enemy immediately!" One by one, the Virginians slowed, turned about, and rallied to attack again. Personal leadership proved crucial here. Colonel Campbell made time to visit every corps while marching to Kings Mountain. Face to face, he had urged each man to do his duty. And his own Virginians suffered the most casualties of any patriot corps. These men marched the most miles to get into this fight. Although their homes in the Virginia mountains were far removed from the great plantations of the Tidewater, this regiment did include African-Americans -- three free men of color and colonel's servant, John Broddy. Americans in Redcoats "These things are ominous -- these are the damned yelling boys!" -- Abraham DePeyster, New York loyalist officer British war drums bellowed the alarm as 120 battle-hardened veterans in red took their places in line here. They were the first to face the Whig woodsmen moving up through the trees below. Mounting bayonets as they had in countless drills before, they charged the riflemen. British hopes to end the 6-year-long rebellion rested on Americans such as these. Leaders in London thought that a backbone of provincial soldiers could set the example, training Tory militia to march and fight properly. Together the Americans in redcoats and local loyalists might well re-establish Crown control in the South.
6. KINGS_030830_059.JPG: This is the secondary Kings Mountain monument. Their are inscriptions on either side. Among them: In memory of the patriotic Americans who participated in the Battle of Kings Mountain, this Monument is erected by their grateful descendants. Fell on this battleground in defense of Civil Liberty: Col James Williams, Maj William Chronicle; Captains John Mattocks, David Beatie, William Edmonson; First Lieutenants Reece Bowen, Thomas McCulloch, William Blackburn, Robert Edmonson; Second Lieutenants John Beatie, Andrew Edmonson, Lumberson Lyon, James Corry, James Laird, Nathaniel Guist, Nathanial Dryden, James Phillips; Privates William Rabb, John Boyd, David Duff, Henry Henigar, William Watson, Arthur Patterson, Preston Coforth.
7. KINGS_030830_078.JPG: Plaques on this memorial say a number of things: To commemorate the victory of King's Mountain October 7, 1780. Erected by the Government of the United States to the establishment of which the heroism and patriotism of those who participated in this battle so largely contributed. On this field, the patriot forces attacked and totally defeated an equal force of Tories and British regular troops. The British commander Major Patrick Ferguson was killed and his entire force was captured after suffering heavy loss. This brilliant victory marked the turning point of the American Revolution. Various other signs: Loyal Carolina Men "So soon as Charleston fell, there was a proclamation for all to come forward... peace and pardon should be granted.... Vast numbers flocked in and submitted; some through fear, some through willingness, and others, perhaps, through a hope that all things would settle down and war cease." -- John Roberts, South Carolina patriot Finding enemies on all sides, Major Ferguson called for a defensive ring facing outward along this quarter-mile-long ridge. Ninety percent of the Tories who fought here did not wear the King's redcoat. In the war-torn Carolina backcountry in 1780, allegiances were bitter, confused, and sometimes fluid. Some men did switch sides, even in the heat of the battle. After all, the foes firing uphill at them were their own neighbors -- and brothers. Cross in a Crossfire Hard pressed on every side, Ferguson's men fell back to their camp, which lay in the saddle of the ridge you see just ahead. As some Tories tried to surrender, bullets continued to pour into their ranks from all directions. Too late, they saw they were pinned down in a deadly crossfire. Patriots rounding up Tory prisoners remembered how British Colonel Tarleton had ordered rebel prisoners taken at nearby Waxhaws to be killed in cold blood. Even as the heat of battle cooled atop Kings Mountain, few Tories were show mercy. Ferguson's camp included tents and weapons for a thousand men, cattle, and horses, and 19 large baggage wagons. This encampment contained one-third of British military strength available in the South. "The curses rebels Came upon us, killed and Took every Soul and So My Dear friends I bid you farewell for I am Started to the warm Country." -- Last entry in a loyalist's diary found on the battlefield
8. KINGS_030830_100.JPG: This is marker indicating where Major Ferguson fell. The top of it says: "Here Col Ferguson Fell Oct 7 1780". Another sign: Major Ferguson Falls The chaos of battle roared along this ridge top. Piercing the din of gunfire and wounded men's groans, Ferguson's silver whistle shrilled, rallying his Tories. Two horses were shot out from under him; Ferguson seemed to be everywhere at once. While he was charging and slashing at the advancing Whigs, eight or nine rifle balls struck the major at the same time. His unusual "checkered duster" had made him an easy target. Ferguson fell from the saddle, his boot caught in the stirrup. Fierce fighting continued as Captain Abraham DePeyster assumed command, but not for long. Minutes later, the King's men were laying down their arms as white flags fluttered here and there amid the swirling gunsmoke. Four stunned loyalists untangled the major's boots from the stirrup, and propped him again a tree out of the line of fire. There men of both sides gathered to watched a legend die. Patrick Ferguson, age 36, served his King with professional distinction as a soldier for 20 years in Europe, the West Indies, and North America. Renowned as the best marksman in the British army, he was a dynamic military recruiter and trainer in the Carolinas. His defeat here signified the end of any British hopes to win the war using Americans loyal to the Crown. The son of Scottish gentry, Major Ferguson was the only Briton to fight at Kings Mountain.
9. KINGS_030830_103.JPG: You noticed the size of the Ferguson marker indicating where the leader of the Tory forces died. This marker is for a patriot named Col Frederick Hambright who was only wounded here. Different constituencies.
10. KINGS_030830_108.JPG: This memorial to Ferguson was added to the battlefield in 1930 for the creation of the national battlefield ceremonies. Various other signs: American Victors Imagine hundreds of men, dressed more or less alike, hearts still pounding from the fever of battle, milling around this hillside as the sun sets. Whigs and Tories both sleep on wet, cold ground, amid the groans of wounded and dying men. The rebel colonels decide to leave here the next morning, for they know that Cornwallis is not that far away. Messengers ride out to carry word of victory to George Washington. Three weeks later, the good news finally reaches Philadelphia. By then, all these patriot regiments, like evening mists, have completely disappeared into the endless Southern forests. Yet, for these men -- and for the patriot cause -- after Kings Mountain, nothing would ever be the same. The battle of Kings Mountain blessed Whig John Sevier with fame and political good fortune for the rest of his life. Six times he was elected governor of Tennessee. John Sevier also served in the United States Congress. Many other Whig leaders, such as Shelby, Cleveland, and Winston, enjoyed long success in frontier politics. Americans Vanquished In these woods, dazed hurriedly buried their fallen comrades, using only logs and rocks. Dr Uzal Johnson of the New Jersey provincials spent the night with the several hundred men with wounds, tending friend and foe alike. At dawn, a long line of prisoners stumbled away under guard. In a few weeks, some would be paroled. Many would escape and return to the King's ranks. A few, judged notorious plunderers, would be hanged. And none would see themselves or the King's cause as they had before Kings Mountain. Nor would their leaders in London. As the war ended in 1783, each loyalist American had to make a decision. Many, like Abraham DePeyster, left to resettle in New Brunswick, Canada. His family lost all their properties in New York. Other Tories, like the 23-year-old Dr Johnson, chose to return home and resume their lives among their neighbors under a new government.
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Wikipedia Description: Battle of Kings Mountain
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Battle of Kings Mountain, October 7, 1780, was an important Patriot victory in the Southern campaign of the American Revolutionary War. Frontier militia overwhelmed the loyalist militia led by British Major Patrick Ferguson. In The Winning of the West, Theodore Roosevelt wrote of Kings Mountain, "This brilliant victory marked the turning point of the American Revolution."

The Patriots (Whigs) were entirely volunteer forces who fought under men that they choose to follow: William Campbell, John Sevier, Frederick Hambright, Joseph McDowell, Benjamin Cleveland, James Williams, John McKissack, and Isaac Shelby led their militia units as Colonels, while Captain Joseph Winston and Edward Lacey commanded the other mostly autonomous units.

After the defeat of Horatio Gates's army at the Battle of Camden, British General Cornwallis was convinced that Georgia and South Carolina were under British control, and he began plans to move into North Carolina. However, a brutal civil war between colonists continued to rage in South Carolina. The Whig frontiersmen, led by a group of self-proclaimed colonels of the rebellion—Isaac Shelby, Elijah Clarke, and Charles McDowell—conducted hit-and-run raids on Loyalist outposts. To protect his western flank, Cornwallis gave Major Patrick Ferguson command of the Loyalist militia.

Cornwallis invaded North Carolina on September 9, 1780, and reached Charlotte on September 26. Ferguson followed and established a base camp at Gilbertown and issued a challenge to the Patriot leaders to lay down their arms or he would, "Lay waste to their country with fire and sword." But the tough-talking words only outraged the Appalachian frontiersmen who rallied at Sycamore Shoals and acted to bring the battle to Ferguson rather than wait for him to come to them. They crossed over the mountains and thus were called the "Over Mountain Men".

Having learned of the Patriot approach fr ...More...
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Same Subject: Click on this link to see coverage of items having the same subject: [American Revolution] [Park (National Park Service)]
2003 photos: Trips this year: Three-week trip this year out west, mostly in Utah. Equipment this year: I decided my Epson digital camera wasn't quite enough for what I wanted. Since I already had Compact Flash chips for it, I had to find another camera which used CF chips. That brought me to buy the Fujifilm S602 Zoom in March 2003. A great digital camera, I used it exclusively for an entire year. Number of photos taken this year: 68,000.
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