And Then There Were Thirteen with Dr. Henry Lumpkin was an instructional series debuted by SCETV in the mid-1970s. The 20-episode series featured lectures by Dr. Henry Lumpkin of the University of South Carolina Department of History filmed on actual battle sites and campaign areas of the American Revolution in South Carolina.
Professor Henry Lumpkin describes the Battle of Kings Mountain as a deadly, savage action where Major Patrick Ferguson, British Commander, lost his life and his entire force to the encircling attack of American frontier riflemen. We learn about the terrain of the area for the battle, the types of weaponry used by the Loyalists and the Patriots, as well as the type of battles being waged by either side, all of which had an impact on the outcome of Kings Mountain.
The nine hundred frontier riflemen came from the backwoods of North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and Georgia. Some were the wild hunters from beyond the mountains, specifically from the Watauga, Nonotuck and Holston settlements, along the Cherokee frontier in what is now Tennessee.
The Loyalists were dressed and armed in the fashion of the British Army using bayonets, sabers and muskets capable of limited accuracy under the best of circumstances. The patriots were experienced riflemen using accurate, long rifles, used to fighting in forests and rough terrain. From their position below the mountain top, they found themselves shooting up and into the Loyalist forces, retreating behind trees to reload, then moving forward again to assault the enemy.
The professor observed that the Battle of Kings Mountain was very much a civil war. Except Patrick Ferguson, the battlers on both sides were Americans, sometimes neighbors or even family members. It was well known that Ferguson underestimated the backwoods forces, and with Cornwallis about thirty miles away, there were many questions as to why Ferguson did not move off of the mountain to rejoin the superior force awaiting him,
After the battle, the brutality continued as surrendering Loyalist forces continued to be murdered until leaders such as Isaac Shelby entreated the men to stop. No sympathy was given to the fallen Loyalists, and several Loyalist fighters who had been previously captured and paroled were hung. The Patriots hastily buried Patrick Ferguson and a monument dedicated to him marks where he was slain in the battle.
The outcome and nature of the battle meant that few citizens were signing up to support the Loyalist cause, and the overall effect set the stage for the later battle of Nathanael Greene at Cowpens.
Side Notes
- Major Patrick Ferguson (1744 - 1780) The Battle of King’s Mountain proved fatal for Ferguson as he was shot from his horse and dragged to the Rebel side by his stirrup. When approached for surrender, he pulled his pistol and shot a Patriot Rebel. He was shot eight times by Rebel soldiers and later buried in an unmarked grave. In the 1920’s the King’s Mountain National Military Park, administered by the National Park Service, erected a marker at Ferguson’s grave site.
- Kings Mountain National Military Park. Thomas Jefferson called it "The turn of the tide of success." The battle of Kings Mountain, fought October 7th, 1780, was an important American victory during the Revolutionary War. The battle was the first major patriot victory to occur after the British invasion of Charleston, SC in May 1780. The park preserves the site of this important battle.
- Benjamin Cleveland (1738 – 1806) Born in Orange County, Virginia, Cleveland moved to Wilkes County, North Carolina, in 1769 when he was thirty-one years old. Once there, he built his estate “Roundabout” near Ronda, North Carolina, and became the county’s wealthiest and most prominent citizen by the American Revolution. Due to his six-foot frame and reportedly weighing 300 lbs. in his prime, he was known as “Old Roundabout.” Reportedly, Cleveland became known as the “Terror of the Tories” for his rough treatment of local Loyalists.
- James Johnston (1742 – 1805) was an officer in the Tryon County Regiment and Lincoln County Regiments of the North Carolina militia in the American Revolution, a delegate to the North Carolina Provincial Congress in 1776, and a state senator in 1780–1782.
- William Campbell (1745 - 1781) was a Revolutionary War militia officer who commanded Patriot forces at the Battle of Kings Mountain.
- John Sevier (1745-1815) Cherokee relations remained peaceful until the American Revolution, when the British took advantage of growing tribal dissent and forged an alliance in the spring of 1776. Sevier played a key role when the Cherokee attacked the settlements, and again four years later in the Kings Mountain campaign and the Battle of Boyd’s Creek.
- Joseph McDowell (1756 – 1801} With the outbreak of the American Revolution, McDowell served with his cousin Joseph in the Burke County militia, commanded by his older brother Charles. The regiment was involved in incursions against the Cherokee Indians under General Griffith Rutherford and in suppressing Tory uprisings in its own area. Early in 1780 it participated in the Battle of Ramsour's Mill. Joseph and his brother are credited with initiating the plan to organize a force to challenge the Tory troops under British Colonel Patrick Ferguson, and it was under the "Council Oak" on their Quaker Meadows estate that their regiment joined the "Overmountain Men" of Isaac Shelby and John Sevier and proceeded towards Kings Mountain.
- Isaac Shelby (1750 - 1826) In 1776 Shelby was appointed as a captain in the Virginian forces defending the new state against the British. Shelby’s experience living and waging war on the frontier would prove useful. From 1777 to 1779 he led several expeditions to the west to procure supplies for American forces. In 1779 he also helped guard a commission sent to extend the North Carolina-Virginia border to the west, a project which incidentally placed his home in North Carolina. He was subsequently commissioned as a major in the militia of his new home state. When the British captured Charleston, South Carolina in 1780, Shelby was surveying land in present-day Kentucky. He assembled a force of militia to resist the British occupation of the South and lead his men to victory at the Battles of Thickety Fort, King’s Mountain, and at Musgrove’s Mill. Shelby, who had served in Virginia’s House of Delegates in 1779, was elected to North Carolina’s General Assembly in 1781 and again in 1782.
- Alexander Chesney -His story, briefly sketched, is that of an adherent of the British crown who, as a youth, served as a guide for Loyalist refugees. For this he was imprisoned for a few days and then given the alternative of joining the Whigs or standing trial. As his father's family had been threatened with ruin for harboring some of these refugees, Alexander joined the Whigs in the hope, he says, of protecting his kindred. He served with them as a private from April, 1776, in campaigns against the Creek and Cherokee Indians and was at Augusta, Georgia, with them in the summer of 1779. Between these expeditions he engaged in conveying produce by team to Charleston, South Carolina which was then in the possession of the Whig forces.
- Banastre Tarleton (1754 – 1833) was a British military officer and politician. He is best known as the lieutenant colonel leading the British Legion at the end of the American Revolutionary War.
- Abraham de Peyster (1753 – 1798) was an American-born military officer who was a Loyalist during the American Revolutionary War. He is best known for leading a Loyalist force during the Battle of Kings Mountain and for helping to settle United Empire Loyalist refugees in New Brunswick.
- Anthony Allaire - Diary of Lt. Anthony Allaire - Memorandum of Occurrences During Campaign of 1780.
- Elijah Clarke (1742 - 1799) During the Revolutionary War era he commanded Georgian partisan force, fighting against not only the British, but Creek and Cherokee Indians on whose land white settlers were encroaching. On February 14, 1779, Clarke led a part of the American force that surprised and defeated a loyalist militia at the Battle of Kettle Creek. After the British capture of Charleston in 1780, Clarke and his Georgians participated in the guerilla campaign against the British and their supporters in the South Carolina backcountry. He was one of three American commanders at the Battle of Musgrove’s Mill, during which he was wounded.
- Frederick Hambright (1727 –1817) Native of the Duchy of Bavaria - was a military officer who fought in both the local militia and in the North Carolina Line of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. He is best known for his participation in the Battle of Kings Mountain in 1780. Serving as a statesman early in the Revolution, Hambright joined the war in 1777, ranked a lieutenant colonel in a local militia. His early actions were limited to occasional checks on (and some minor skirmishes with) Loyalist groups. This changed in 1780 with Hambright's important role at the Battle of Kings Mountain, which occurred near his lands in the newly formed Lincoln County, North Carolina. Hambright was commended for his bravery during the battle, though suffering a wound which forced him to permanently resign from military service.
- Edward Lacey - Bio of Edward Lacey, Livingston County.
- William Hill - Mary Long's Yesteryear | William Hill: Forgotten Patriot. (Watch on Passport.)
