Existing comment:
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. |